Furnishing Gorica Neighborhood with Public Spaces
Author: Andi Papastefani, Iva Guço, Skender Luarasi
Affiliation: Academy of Arts, SymbioticA Shpk, POLIS University
The City of Berat, of which Gorica and Mangalem are two of its most notable neighborhoods, forever looking at each other from opposite sides of the Osum River, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. Such prestigious affiliation promotes the city’s monumental and historical values and makes it the subject of an extensive nomenclature of preservation and restoration, laws, values, and practices. In other words, being UNESCO World Heritage Site puts the city on a map. Such affiliation has triggered an increase in domestic and international tourism, which demands an imaginative upgrade of Berat’s urban infrastructures, both on an architectural and urban scale. Most of the vernacular buildings are currently being transformed into hospitality structures, while the streets and public spaces are furnished with additional public functions. These upgrades must respond to the larger flux of people and different kinds of activities and mobilities on the one hand, and enhance the city’s historical, vernacular, and monumental values on the other. [...]
