‘Liminal Architectural Bodies’ in Post-Industrial Kuçova: From an Ecological Perspective to an Aesthetic realm

Abstract
This paper explores post-industrial urban landscapes as aesthetic tools for understanding the complexity of sites that are still in transition, meaning they have not yet been deindustrialized, restructured, or gentrified. Starting from the idea of the "Anthropocene" understood as the hierarchical intervention of humans in nature, the research aims to disclose the paradoxes and contradictions of these "in-between nature and human" urban scenarios.
Taking Kuçova, Albania's first oil city, as a case study, we explore the various locations on site where extractive infrastructures are present. Through photographic documentation and interviews with locals, the research speculates on a "hybrid aesthetic" that emerges between human and nonhuman activities, and between past and present. Some of these oil extraction infrastructures (functioning since 1928) are still active today while others are no longer operational.
What is peculiar, however, is that they remain as "liminal architectural bodies" or relics. Although pollution and abandonment continue to shape Kuçova's built environment, this research argues for a shift from purely ecological perspective toward an aesthetic approach. Such a shift opens possibilities not only for remembering Kuçova's industrial past, but also for imagining future scenarios that incorporate, rather than dismiss, these remnants even as an object of aesthetic contemplation.
The paper argues that it is precisely today, when conditions of "transition zones" are still visible in Albania's urban landscapes and when the complexity of history and its human and nonhuman aesthetic and architectural constructions remain materially present that we have the opportunity to think critically about a more sustainable, equal and inclusive future.
This research is part of a broader ongoing project aimed at developing a hybrid design and art platform capable of generating debate and reflection among the inhabitants of Kuçova, positioning them as active agents in shaping the city's vision.

Keywords: Liminality; Anthropocene; Hybrid aesthetic; Transitional zones; Sustainable future