Resource Efficient Urban Regeneration of Informal Settlements in Tirana, Albania : Solutions for Ongoing Transformation

Abstract

The REAP (Resource Efficiency in Architecture and Planning) Master’s Program is a multidisciplinary and international program at HafenCity University, Hamburg, that brings together professionals from all over the world. The program’s focus is on sustainable planning at various scales and in different cultural, geographical, and societal contexts. By following an integrative and multidimensional approach to real-world applications, the REAP program offers students opportunities to approach the challenges of today with realistic recommendations and solutions supported by the faculty with an ex- tensive background in the field of sustainability at both the technical and political level. The program consists of three core projects at different scales: the city, the neighborhood, and the building. This brochure highlights the works of the 12th generation REAP students’ third project, in the context of Resource Efficient Planning in informal settlements of Tirana, Albania. The projects and essays on the following pages aim to give the reader an understanding of the challenges and opportunities affecting the post-socialist urban transformation in the city as well as the consequent innovative, contextually appropriate, and climate-responsive planning strategies developed to support the resource efficient urban regeneration of informal settlements in Tirana, Albania.