Intersecting Landscapes: New Spatial Visions for the Cross-Border Region of the Prespa Lakes
Author
Kejt Dhrami, Anila Bejko, Alessandro delli Ponti, Francesco Axel Pio Romio
Affiliation
Polis University, Tirana, Albania
University of Ferrara–DA, Italy
Abstract
This article presents a research-by-design contribution for the Prespa–Ohrid lake region, with a focus on Pustec Municipality (Albania). It integrates three inseparable components—method, diagnostics, and design hypothesis—into a single narrative. Methodologically, it advances a “sensitive exploration” that manages attention and meaning through planning by walking and by reading the area as a living, trans-scalar system. Diagnostically, it reframes the region as a planetary-scale “witness territory,” identifies five strategic understandings (ten-million- years system; secret geography; trans-scalar articulator; three horizons—many strings; and the fiord-like coastline), and proposes an epistemic transition away from mobility-led, growth-first templates toward ecosystemic logics and cross-border cooperation. The design hypothesis translates this stance into two scales of action: (1) a cross- border strategy articulated through three national sequences and time-phased goals; and (2) a local prototype in Pustec—the Agro-field as connector of landscapes and biotopes—linking knowledge facilities, buffer landscapes, water management, and productive planting into a shared civic and ecological infrastructure. The proposal aligns with a broader vision-making approach that treats future-making as a care-oriented, adaptive process rather than a fixed blueprint.
Keywords
Cross-Border Connectivity, Landscape Segmentation, Sustainable Tourism
