European Planning Studies

ISSN: 0965-4313 (Print) 1469-5944 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ceps20

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana: Socio-spatial

Impact of Liberalism
Ilir Nase & Mehmet Ocaki
To cite this article: Ilir Nase & Mehmet Ocaki (2010) Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana:
Socio-spatial Impact of Liberalism, European Planning Studies, 18:11, 1837-1861, DOI:
10.1080/09654313.2010.512169
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2010.512169

Published online: 13 Oct 2010.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 120

View related articles

Citing articles: 4 View citing articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ceps20
Download by: [Gadjah Mada University]

Date: 20 September 2016, At: 01:04

European Planning Studies Vol. 18, No. 11, November 2010

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana:

Socio-spatial Impact of Liberalism
ILIR NASE & MEHMET OCAKCI

Centre for Research on Property and Planning, University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Newtownabbey, UK,
Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

(Received November 2007; accepted July 2009)

ABSTRACT Transition from a centralized to a market economy yielded different responses from the
former Eastern Bloc countries with economic performance directly affecting spatial composition of the
cities. Post-socialist urban transformations across Central and Eastern Europe exhibit main, common
features but always preserve singularities, characteristic of individual states. This paper, by using
comparative methods and urban planning analyses, emphasizes differences in the degree of change
for inner city areas under same transition conditions. Drawing on empirical evidence from Tirana,
the paper stresses the fact that besides the obvious general change in the communism-inherited
urban fabric, the degree of this change is predicated on the areas centrality and its pretransitional urban pattern. It is pointed out that this spatial change follows a mutually interactive,
parallel path with the socio-economic composition of the city. The peculiarity of Tirana stands in
the fact that post-socialist socio-spatial transformations are better defined by Balkanization
(implying individuality and hostility) rather than segregation (which implies clustering).

Introduction
Following the collapse of the communist regimes within the Eastern Bloc, transformation
processes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have emerged as a new fertile research
area attracting the focus of many researchers. While political and economical spheres
of transition have led the research agenda, only recently have attempts materialized,
mainly with a series of edited books, to analyse transition at an urban scale both in the
spatial and in the social contexts (Hamilton et al., 2005; Tsenkova & Nedovic-Budic,
2006a; Stanilov, 2007a). Boren and Gentile (2007) summarize the research on postsocialist urban transformations under three subcategories, namely (1) urban management
and governance; (2) social issues and processes and (3) urban morphology. The majority
of these studies have focused on the metropolitan scale or the overall form of the city
as shaped by the most characteristic feature of post-socialismthe returning of land and

Correspondence Address: Ilir Nase, Room 2D10, School of the Built Environment, University of Ulster at
Jordanstown, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim BT37 0QB, UK. Email: nase-i@email.ulster.ac.uk
ISSN 0965-4313 Print/ISSN 1469-5944 Online/10/11183725
DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2010.512169

# 2010 Taylor & Francis

1838

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

property to private ownership (Andrusz, 2001, p. 1837). In this context, the major topics
discussed concerned housing trends, suburbanization related to privatization and migration,
socio-spatial polarization and inner city transformations due to land use changes.
Studies at a smaller scale within the urban context are quite rare, and the existing ones
focus mainly on office developments, central business district (CBD) transformations and
brownfield developments as a consequence of deindustrialization (Kreja, 2006; Kiss,
2007; Sykora, 2007; Temelova, 2007). We realize that attempts to analyse possible
effects of liberal economy on the morphology of the different urban patterns are rather
an intact area of research. In this study, we focus on a smaller scale to go beyond the previously discussed general trends of post-socialist city transformation and give a more
insightful picture of the level of changes in the built environment and socio-economic
composition of those who produce, consume and alter this environment.
With Tirana as a case study, this article concentrates on the possible differences of morphological change in the post-socialist city for different given patterns of the urban fabric.
We also make an assessment of the change in the socio-economic composition of the Albanian capital under the condition of the free movement of people as set by the introduction
of a new liberal regime. Under the light of a more general hypothesis that Under economical transition conditions, the liberal economy factors lead to a change in the sociospatial composition of a city, we forward two supportive sub-hypotheses to be tested
for the specific case study in Tirana. First, we hypothesize that: Post-socialist urban morphological transformations are dependent on the socialist (pre-transitional) pattern of a
given urban area. And secondly, we state that: Post-socialist urban transformations
are coupled with socio-economic Balkanisation (which we treat as an extreme condition
of segregation), especially in the capital city.
This article is framed into two main lines. First, we treat major post-socialist transformation trends across CEE at the country and city levels by reviewing literature on the field.
Here, the attention will be drawn to Albania as a somewhat extreme case of a country
under transition. Afterwards, as we gradually unveil our outcomes, we make a comparative
analysis of the case study in Tirana with outcomes from literature review on different case
studies on post-socialist city transformations across CEE.
The Post-socialist City Revisited
Of many discussions concerning the post-socialist city, its diverging and converging
physical development patterns and the social complexity related to these developments,
there is still no unified consent on these transformations and yet no clear definition on
what is the post-socialist city itself. One thing stands for clear that there is no single
post-socialist city transformation model but a range of similar cases bearing general
trends on one side and region- or state-bound peculiarities on the other (Tosics, 2005;
Boren & Gentile, 2007; Stanilov, 2007b).
The urban transformation issue from socialism to post-socialism has aroused debate
grouped mainly in two poles: the historical and the ecological schools. These schools
draw mainly on the debate concerning, respectively, the uniqueness of the socialist city
as opposed to the universal processes of urbanization and industrialization, which goes
beyond the socialist capitalist divide (Hirt & Kovachev, 2006; Nedovic-Budic et al.,
2006) As our focus remains mainly with the post-socialist end of the transition/transformation process (Nedovic-Budic et al., 2006), we will concentrate mainly on another

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1839

debate regarding the path dependency (which underlines the influence of past legacy on
the direction/path of transition) and involutionary (going back towards socialism or
pre-socialist capitalism) nature as opposed to the evolutionary (going towards capitalism) model or even a third option of the recombination of socialist and capitalist features
(Hirt, 2007).
With respect to urban transformations in post-socialist cities, Tsenkova and NedovicBudic (2006b) identified the following dimensions: global, social, public and private institutions and spatial. To better illustrate this classification, we believe that the following
insert by Stanilov (2007b) is one of the most suitable on the purpose:
What followed after 1989 in the former Eastern Block was a typically post-modern
situation characterized by a lack of moral certainty and clear authority, and the rise
of multiple voices previously oppressed by the meta-narrative of communist ideology. On the urban scene, this post-socialist/post modern condition has been
reflected in a chaotic pattern of development, generated by the retreat of central
authorities, the appearance of a multitude of new players, and the frivolous application of patterns of development borrowed from the West. (p. 8)
In this context, there appears to be some characteristic features of the post-socialist city
which point out its uniqueness. Certainly, transformation was spatially reflected both
positively and negatively.1 One good urban pattern outcome of transformation is the
break-up of the mono-centric modelan issue which Bertaud (2006) argues mainly by
sustaining that by adopting a dominant mono-centric character, CEE cities will be able
to maintain their cultural identity through the prestigious centre, reduce pressure on the
natural environment by maintaining high densities in the centre and reduce pollution by
increasing transit viability. Other positive outcomes include redevelopment of brownfield
sites (Kiss, 2004, 2007) and improvement in building standards by means of gentrification
(Dingsdale, 1999a; Sykora, 1999, 2007; Temelova, 2007). Certainly, the negative outcomes are perhaps the most documented with: Hirt and Stanilov (2007), Sic (2007) and
Vujovic and Petrovic (2007) on chaotic development patterns; Aliaj et al. (2004), Deda
and Tsenkova (2006), Sic (2007) and Vujovic and Petrovic (2007) on the blossoming
of illegal constructions; Deda and Tsenkova (2006), Hirt and Kovachev (2006), Hirt
(2007) and Leetmaa and Tammaru (2007) on suburban sprawl and Dingsdale (1999a),
Sykora (1999), Wiener (1999), Tosics (2006) and Ourednicek (2007) on the depopulation
of city centres.
The above-mentioned common characteristics of the post-socialist city are only one side
of the coin, and the other side comprised those features peculiar to specific countries or
regions. The major dividing factor in terms of transformation among post-socialist
cities of CEE is related to the rate of transformation of the above-mentioned urban patterns
rather than the direction of these transformations (Stanilov, 2007b). The following part of
the paper will discuss the major urban characteristics of post-socialist cities related to
developments in their countries.
Of States and CitiesA Typology of Transformation Across CEE
Almost two decades have now overlapped since the dismantling of the Iron Curtain
between East and West, introducing a new European reality of post-socialist states. In

1840

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

the global scale, the idea of a New Europe or even a New World Order has emerged
(Dingsdale, 1999b). Pertaining to the very different levels of country development during
the socialist era, this also coupled with variations in reform implementations: a clear international pattern with progress in transition decreasing eastwards is evident in the former
Eastern Bloc countries. Although identifiable in this certain pattern, spatial impacts of
transitional change are unevenly distributed throughout the nations (Hamilton, 1999).
This whole scenario in the urban scale has resulted in a highly varying spatial composition,
which various authors, to point out the degree of spatial compartmentalization, have
identified with the mosaic metaphor (Hamilton, 1999; Nedovic-Budic et al., 2006).
Stanilov (2007b) also discusses this diversification issue of the transition period, but
rather than attempting a scale, he focuses more on the variety of forces shaping the
process. It is the global and local forces that shape the process under the phenomenon
of path dependency and the concept of revolutionary change thus largely depending on
communist legacies and current transitional performances. Certainly, as Hamiltons
eastwards decreasing development pattern suggests, countries of Central Europe top
the list, while countries of Eastern Europe mainly Former Soviet Union and the West
Balkans (Albania and Ex-Yugoslav states with the exception of Slovenia) sit well at the
bottom of it.
Of all the Eastern Bloc states, East Germany (former GDR) stands well ahead of the
others, with its transition to liberal economy being shaped by two main factors. First,
the intensive support provided by the western part of the unified Germany both by
direct financial support and by the implementation of the legal framework of a relatively
consolidated system speeded up the transformation process. Secondly, privatization policies had a bipolar effect presenting rather a unique case of transition to liberal
economy. On the one hand, the state kept control of the socialist-period housing stock,
thus possessing handy control mechanisms over the housing market by relatively high
influence of the public sector. On the other hand, the German economic philosophies of
private over public and procedure setbacks in property restitution have aroused questions
in property ownership (Wiener, 1999).
While transition in East Germany was marked by the support of the western part of the
unified Germany, other Central European states enjoyed the benefits of a favourable geopolitical location over the routes between East and West. Their relative success is attributed to a combination of other somewhat mutual factors. Keivani et al. (2002) argue that
Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary adopted aggressive macroeconomic reforms
coupled with consolidated institutions and an advanced legislative framework for a
prompt recovery from transition. Furthermore, they offered cheap and skilled labour
force accessible by the international firms due to the developed infrastructural capacity,
thus fostering attraction of foreign investment additionally encouraged by the political
stability of these countries. Figures tell of a foreign direct investment (FDI) more than
five times larger in those countries than all the other remaining CEE countries taken
together (Stanilov, 2007b). This clustering does not prevent country-specific conditions
to be observed. For instance, while Hungary enjoyed higher political stability in the
early 1990s due to an earlier adoption and implementation of reform policies, the
Polish strength lies behind its domestic market of about 40 million (Keivani et al., 2002).
Figures report nearly all transition countries to have experienced a deep recession in the
post-1900 period, but not all of them recovered at the same pace. Recovery process was
slower in South-eastern Europe (SEE) and the Balkans than in Central Europe (Nase,

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1841

20072; World Bank, World Development Indicators). The initial highly accelerated
recovery process in Albania and Bulgaria had a negative effect, resulting in either repeated
crises or significant delays in implementing successful reforms. Although at the current
time the Balkan countries show a forward adjustment trend (Petrakos & Totev, 2000,
2001) in their economies, they are still far from those of now integrated Central European
neighbours.
The transition path of Albania was harsh and with negative economical implementations. The still very high agricultural share of its gross domestic product and the deep
industrial collapse count for a delayed development compared to other countries in transition. Development indicators show that Albania represents an extreme case of underdevelopment within the former Eastern Bloc countries, its rank as the poorest country in
Europe being the proof (World Bank, World Development Indicators).
Albanias total isolation coupled with chaotic developments and political instability
during the early phase of transition has deeply damaged the image of this small enigmatic
entity in south-eastern Europe (Hall, 1999, p. 161), thus directly affecting the inflow of
FDI. The countrys struggle in transition has been one of rises and falls. It can be said that
the liberal economy had negative spatial outcomes; the condition being facilitated by the
incapacity of the government to exert power as well as a lack of economical and political
will to invest in infrastructural development (Deda & Tsenkova, 2006; Nase, 2007).
Within the Balkans, another unique case with respect to both pre- and post-transitional
developments is represented by ex-Yugoslav states. During socialism, Yugoslavia enjoyed
liberalized income regimes and a greater importance of market-like relations (fostered by
the Yugoslav policy of self-management) than other socialist countries. On the other hand,
the period after 1990 developed under the mark of stagnation due to blocked transformations mainly as a consequence of the war (Petrovic, 2005).
It is evident that country performance during transition together with political and economic development levels has also affected the level and direction of urban transformations
in the post-socialist states. As a direct consequence of communist legacies and reform
strategies adopted, following the wide range of transition stages post-socialist states find
themselves in and knowing the complex nature of the city as a system, it can be
deduced that no single path/type of post-socialist urban transformation exists. Thus far,
due mainly to the scarce literature on the field, attempts to come up with a clear typology
of post-socialist city transformations have been rare. The most prominent work includes a
detailed typology based mainly on evidence from capital cities of post-socialist states
attempted by Tosics (2005) and a more general division of development trend predictions
by Stanilov (2007b).
Nedovic-Budic et al. (2006) claim that the notion of change underlying the discourse on
transition implies a starting point and an ending point, in this case, the socialist and capitalist city, respectively. Based mainly on the path dependency and revolutionary change
development concept of the post-socialist city transformations, the classification made
by Tosics (2005) is perhaps the most detailed attempt up to now to trace transformation
direction of specific categories of cities representing the former Eastern Bloc countries.
Both authors agree on the main lines of this direction while identifying capitalist city
and Third World city models as the outcomes of transition from socialist city. They
also take similar positions regarding specific regulated and unregulated urban development patterns of the capitalist model identifiable respectively with West European and
North American city models. In addition to these three types, Stanilov sees in the

1842

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

development perspective of certain cities such as Moscow, Warsaw, Sofia and Belgrade
the emerging idea of high-rise dense CBD. This constitutes a fourth possible scenario in
post-socialist urban development trends, which is identifiable with the development of
East Asian cities (for more details on cities, see Kreja, 2006; Temelova, 2007; Vujovic
& Petrovic, 2007).
By analysing the literature on the development of specific post-socialist cities, and
under the light of a recombination of Hamiltons eastwards decreasing development
pattern with Tosics post-socialist urban development typology, we develop a gradient
model of city transformations3 (Figure 1). While the list may be exhaustive to some
extent, the clustering and the order within the gradient are bound to change as global
forcesmainly led by EU enlargement policiesand local regulatory incentives gear
up the development of only certain countries. Neither should the model be understood
as representing spatial change in CEE as a bipolar process, but it should rather be taken
as a success scale in the spatial [re]structuring of the cities.
There are two main directions followed by the post-socialist city; either the capitalist
model encountered in the cities of Central, south-eastern and to some extent Eastern
Europe or the Third World city model mainly coupled with developments in the
cities of the Western Balkans. The capitalist city model per se is further articulated in
two main branches according to the regulation of development patterns. At this stage,
certain country-specific transition features play key diversification roles. For example,
the geographical proximity of the Visegrad Five and Baltic states to the western part of
Europe has played a major role on the speeding up of the transformation process and provided a development typology for the transformation of cities in these countries.
It can be inferred from the gradient that East German cities are those approaching to the
largest extent the Western European-regulated capitalist city model. There are three prominent features of urban transformations: first, a rapid growth of the suburban zones by both
residential and commercial suburbanizationthe latter being specific to East German cities
for its sheer scale; secondly, inner city developments marked by the West German influence
and values of gentrification on [re]evaluation of old architecture coupled with planned
infill of vacant centrally located plots and thirdly, a significantly lower socio-spatial

Figure 1. Post-socialist development gradient of CEE cities

Source: Tosics (2005) and Hamilton (1999).

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1843

polarization compared to other post-socialist cities due to successful planning and social
security systems. All these factors demonstrate a specific pattern of transformation
well apart from and, to some extent, to be considered as a forerunner for urban transformations in other post-socialist states (Wiener, 1999; Steinfuhrer & Haase, 2007).
While East Germany successfully implemented government-sponsored programmes to
shape urban fabric, other Central European countries used their lack of resources to justify
the political inaction. Although it may be argued that the lack of policy constitutes a policy
in itself (Stanilov, 2007d, p. 354), the lack of national planning policies has aided city
centre decline and favoured suburbanizationa major feature of post-fordist North American urban development. According to Tosics (2005) typology, Central European and
Baltic cities all show a development trend towards the capitalist model with differences
in regulation patterns among them. Since the development model is rather settled in
these cities, the major dilemma surrounding them is the dispersed versus compact
city discussion or whether internal planning and regulatory forces will direct development
towards the more controlled Western European or the unregulated North American model.
For this reason, the order of these subcategories in the gradient and their compositions are
destined to change or their divide may be blurred, thus representing a large cluster of cities
with similar characteristics of post-socialist urban developments.
The literature has shown that while Warsaw benefits from a strong internal market and
growing FDI, the relatively weak government control has favoured the doughnut effect.
Therefore, in contrast to the better long-term development prospect of Warsaw when compared to other cities in the region (e.g. Prague and Budapest) (Adair et al., 1999), the intracommunal rivalry over an ill-defined CBD coupled with problems of property has diverted
major urban development towards outer and suburban communes (Keivani et al., 2002).
Similar development trends are traceable in other large Polish cities as is the case of
Poznan where massive suburbanization, intense commercialization of the city centre
and socio-spatial polarization mark the shift from post-socialist to capitalist model
(Kotus, 2006). Despite decentralization, central government still intervenes in urban
developments, thus negatively impacting regulatory policies in the Polish cities where
development is piecemeal by urban coalitions or public private partnerships with a
continuously diminishing role of the public sector (Tasan-Kok, 2006).
The case of Prague does not substantially differ from Warsaw, thus representing
evidence that Czech cities too, in their transition to post-socialism, experienced suburbanization and commercialization of city centre accompanied by socio-spatial segregation
with negative effects on the urban environment (Sykora, 1999; Ourednicek, 2007).
However, differences are evident especially in management policies and the role of planning authorities. Inner city developmentsespecially in the corewere marked by the
refurbishment of existing fabric (Sykora, 1999) conditioned by the protective codes on
the historical centre (Adair et al., 1999). This fact accompanied by the supportive
rather than leading role of local authorities (Temelova, 2007, p. 179) triggered the
flee of investments from the centre towards the outskirts of the city, evidencing once
more capitalist features of urban development models. Only recently have piecemeal
flagship developments started to [re]shape the inner city areas of Prague (Sykora, 2007;
Temelova, 2007). Quite scarce analytical evidence is available on Slovak cities believed
however, to follow similar urban development trends to their neighbours.
The Baltic cities comprise a specific case which still falls under the capitalist model
category characterized by massive suburbanization as well as by mostly piecemeal

1844

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

inner city developments. Leetmaa and Tammaru (2007) claim that suburbanization in
Tallinnparticularly of the middle classwas mainly favoured by the vacation of most
Soviet era housing stock due to the migration of large segments of Russian-speaking minorities immediately after regime change. Segregation (both social and spatial) was also
observable in Tallinn mainly with low-density gated communities closing off prime
coastal areas from the public and occupying farmland in the outskirts. Inner city developments were mainly implemented in ad hoc fashion aided also by the lack of regulatory
incentives, thus enhancing fragmentation of the urban fabric. Only after the 2000s has
Tallinn initiated strict policies to regulate urban development (Ruoppila, 2007), thus
showing signs of directing development towards the West European capitalist city model.
Budapest too is a common case of central European cities marked by considerable attraction of FDI. This led to a reduction in residential functionmainly shifting to the outskirts
in the CBD and an increase in commercial and office densities. The entire process was also
coupled with a wholesale gentrification4 (Dingsdale, 1999a, p. 72). The increase in residential density in the outskirts is a process marked by the rebuilding of single-family areas at
a higher density (Tosics, 2006) by a process in which individual families buy a plot and
arrange themselves the building of a house on it (Dingsdale, 1999a). This condition supports
the idea that the local government lacks a concrete urban strategy but, on the other hand,
shows an entrepreneurial attitude marked by higher flexibility in decision-making
(Tasan-Kok, 2006), thus counting for the unregulated pattern of the Hungarian cities.
Ljubljana is the representative case for the Slovenian cities, last of the Visegrad Five
countries. Again here the most prominent features of transformation are commercialization and gentrification of the city core, re-urbanization and revitalization of some inner
city areas mainly as brownfield development and commercial and residential suburbanization. The latter is still in an expansion phase, thus calling for stricter control (DimitrovskaAndrews et al., 2007).
For SEE cities, Tosics (2005) points out their limitations towards a capitalist city development model and predicts other models which Stanilov (2007b) identifies with the East
Asian City development model. Only recently has evidence increased on the transformation
processes in these cities, mainly on Sofia. Hirt and Kovachev (2006) claim that the urban
development of Sofia is now led by a highly fragmented and financially weak private sector
with expected negative impacts. With respect to housing, a peculiarity of Sofia is its ranking
as a city with one of the highest rates of home ownership in European evident consequence of the extreme case of laissez faire principle that post-socialist governments
adoptedwith a direct negative impact on the urban environment (Hirt & Stanilov,
2007). Recent evidence lists characteristic development features of Sofia as follows:
gaining a typical capitalist CBD with subsequent commercial developments at the periphery; the loss of green and public open spaces and fragmentation into private enclosures and
the growth of lower density urban periphery (Hirt & Kovachev, 2006). The latter Hirt
(2007) argues to be typical of the western-type capitalist city development model. Little
evidence exists about Romanian cities which are reported to suffer the partitioning of
vast socialist era public spacesthe process being facilitated by the lagging of property
privatization and a lack of control over urban development (Ioan, 2007).
The further we proceed on the gradient and the farther apart from the capitalist city
model we are drawn. Urban transformations in the West Balkans are coupled with developments common to the Third World cities. The literature available on ex-Yugoslav cities
concentrates mainly on Belgrade and Zagreb, which show substantial similarities among

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1845

them. Zagrebs post-socialist urban transformations are drawn by the forces of market
economies as signs of formation of a new CBD on inner city brownfield and commercial
decentralization in the form of hypermarkets demonstrate (Lukic & Jakovcic, 2004; Sic,
2007). However, as residential decentralization and the always space devastating informal housing sector (Sic, 2007) leading to socio-spatial polarization (Prelogovic, 2004)
demonstrate, elements of Third World city development are present. This entire scenario
evolves in a fertile medium of little control from the authorities, thus endangering the rich
cultural heritage of the city (Cavric & Nedovic-Budic, 2007).
Belgrade is stuck in a more chaotic situation than Zagreb mainlybut not onlyas a
consequence of the war. The city is overcrowded with illegal construction as a result of a
lagging transformation process and the high social tolerance for illegal practices. This
instable situation has repelled FDI, resulting in a high vacancy rate in inner city commercial spaces and a low transformation rate of residential areas to commercial. Another very
significant peculiarity of Belgrade is state property over urban land, which was followed
by illegal and speculative transactions in the real estate market (Vujovic & Petrovic,
2007). Even though Belgrade shows more evident signs of Third World city development
than Zagreb, Petrovic (2005) believes ex-Yugoslav cities (in general and Belgrade in particular) to head towards unregulated capitalist city model embedding elements of Third
World cities, thus clearly differing from the Albanian experience mainly because huge
rural migration followed by urban sprawl is unlikely to happen.
The literature considers the post-socialist Albanian city a unique case because of all the
CEE cities studied, it is the one farthest apart from the capitalist city model, thus closely
approaching development trends characteristic of the Third World city. Huge rural
migration following the regime change (King & Vullnetari, 2003), which was spatially
reflected by an uncontrolled sprawl and population growth of Tirana (Aliaj et al., 2004),
resulted in poverty-stricken peri-urban areas (Deda & Tsenkova, 2006). The whole condition coupled with procedural setbacks in property restitution and privatization presented
major problems in land management, especially due to land tenure claims (Felstehausen,
1999). Notwithstanding these divergences, the boom in the construction sector was outstanding. As a consequence, the Albanian city is crowded and dirtylooking more like
Third World cities each passing dayresembling a construction yard in a never-ending construction process.
A series of factors have influenced the sprawling of these slums of despair over the
western-type residential suburbanization. First, the poor and very limited infrastructural
capacity of the city gives little opportunities for planned suburban expansion. Secondly,
the forerunners of residential suburbanization in western cities, the middle class, are actually missing. Thirdly, poor and limited infrastructure and a speculative housing marked
have increased the residential prestige of the city centre. Tirana really cannot afford
itself to empty its high-prestigious centre and thus we would have to wait for a while
before seeing a doughnut effect in Tirana. Finally, we believe that liberal economy
has increased individuality in the perception of Albanians as a somewhat extreme response
to 40 years of collective socialist society. Therefore, even those who have the opportunity
of escaping the city do it by themselves.
The literature cited above gives evidence of peri-urban transformations as little is documented about inner city socio-spatial activities in Tirana. The following part of this article
analyses urban transformations in the Albanian capital after the fall of state socialism by
means of three case study areas, each of different morphological layout.

1846

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

TiranaThe Study
Forces of liberal economy introduced by regime change, such as internal migration and
rapid population growth, exert pressure on the edges of the everyday-sprawling Albanian
capital. In reaction to such forces, the city continues to expand vertically and horizontally.
Although precise onsite measurements are missing, the area within the yellow line
(border dividing urban and rural) of Tirana is reported to be 41.8 km2. This area is organized into 11 administrative units called municipality units. Tirana municipality counts
585,756 inhabitants or 75% of the districts population, hence being the largest municipality in the country (INSTAT, 2005).
We believe Tirana to be a very suitable laboratory for this type of study and a South-east
European capital requiring serious research on urban transformation issues. With respect
to other CEE capitals, Tirana is rather a new city dating back to the seventeenth century.
Since then, the Ottomans realized the importance of the city as being in the crossroads of
trade routes between east and west. Tirana is the capital of a country considered to have
had since that period a bridging role between Christian Occident and Muslim Orient
(Hall, 1999).
The citys urban beginnings are of Islamic character, but the major turn of the city will
come with its declaration as the capital after due time the city experienced western
influence in terms of urban development mainly under Austrians and Italians. During
the communist period, Tirana was conservatively developed under central planning
principles (Tirana Municipality, 2003; Aliaj et al., 2004). Since the declaration of its
status as the countrys capital, Tirana has been in continuous gain of population and
area increase. Although during communism there was a diverted [inward] migration
towards rural villages in the proximities of the capitalwhich led Sjoberg (1992) to
argue about a zero urban growth hypothesis,5the population was still spatially too
close to Tirana. They were there, in pole position to assault the city at the first opportunityan opportunity presented with the collapse of communism. Forces of liberal market
operating in the new regime helped to physically link the satellites to the capital. This
resulted in the dispersion of the up-to-then compact pattern of the citythe blurring of
its edges and the creation of slum-like peri-urban zones living in high poverty (Deda &
Tsenkova, 2006).
The most important spatial outcome of these periodical developments up to 1990 was a
mixture of textures in the urban fabric developed in augmentative fashionadjoining
rather than superimposingthus forming an archipelago (Berlage Institute, 2004) of
patterns in the built environment. The Lana River divides the city into two parts as per
pattern composition (Figure 2). North lays the old city in organic pattern low-rise
single-family houses and south lays the planned New Tirana in a dominant grid pattern.
Planned development belonging to the socialist era is also seen along major axes and
around the citys ring road.

Methodology
We focused on three case study areas which, by morphological analysis, we consider to be
representative of the most dominant patterns in the citys urban layout. These included the
Islamic organic pattern, the gridiron Italian era pattern and the loose pattern of the socialist
housing estates. Spatially, all the areas are located along the major axes (Figure 3).

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1847

Figure 2. Schematic representation of the urban pattern distribution in Tirana before 1990

Selection was made upon the areas physical characteristicspre-1990 urban pattern
neglecting the administrative division of the city. Pertaining also to the centrality of functions under state socialism, these areas pre-1990 land use was dominantly residential.
The Medrese Region case study area is located north-east of the citys centre and
bounded by two major and two secondary axes. It has a typical organic pattern characteristic of Islamic culture. The urban fabric consists mainly of single- or two-storeyed houses
built of brick or stone dating back to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Building
heritage in the area is mainly from the period 1930 to 1940. Streets are narrow,
winding and often in the form of cul-de-sacs (Figure 4).
The ex leaderships residential blockcommonly referred to in Tirana as the Block
is the proof of western influence in Tirana. It has a rectangular shape and is laid out in strict
gridiron pattern. It has clearly defined blocks and street widths. Destined to be a garden city
of low-density single-family housing, it was built under Italians at the time the Modern
Movement was shaping the world. The area also had street frontages defined by fiveto six-storeyed high buildings planned for commercial and office use. During the
communist regime, these buildings were residential in function, and some other villas
were built in the inner parts of the area destined for the new leadership (Figure 5).
The Irfan Tomini block has the shortest history of all the three case study areas. It
was built by voluntary work as a housing estate in the late 1970s and 1980s, when
Tirana was under communist ruling. As such, it clearly represents the ideas of socialist

1848

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

Figure 3. Location of the study areas in Tirana

Figure 4. Collage of views from the case study area near Medrese. Photos by Nase (2007)

planning. It has blocks of single type, mostly pre-fabricated apartments grouped in islets
encircling recreational areas. The layout is typical of a centralized economy, an economy
where land market is a non-existent concept. Huge empty spaces encircled by fivestoreyed multifamily apartment housing constitute the main urban feature of the area
(Figure 6).
For the assessment of change in the physical conditions of the case study areas, we
use secondary datamainly condition mapsto get a closer insight into the pre-1990

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1849

Figure 5. Collage of views from the Block case study area. Photos by Nase (2007)

Figure 6. Collage of views from the Irfan Tomini block case study area. Photos by Nase (2007)

condition, and for the evaluation of the current state, we make use of post-1990 condition
maps supported with primary data from a building-to-building observation survey.6 We
identified five dimensions of physical change, namely: (1) building height change (or
a change in the skyline)a dimension we identify by the buildings higher than five
storeys which, with very rare exceptions, were built after 1990; (2) current building condition was assessed by a five-degree decreasing risk scale with grades from 1 to 5, where 5
is given for buildings at lowest risk and the threshold was set under the third grade for
buildings of lower-than-average condition or higher-than-average risk, i.e. buildings
receiving grades 1 and 2; (3) change in the ground floor usage (or functional change),
which we identify by the building-to-building survey and the fact that services and
retail were highly centralized and underrepresented during socialism; (4) change in

1850

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

(building to) plot ratio (PR), the ratio of the footprint of the building to the plot it sits in
and, related to the latter, (5) percentage of public space occupation.
Besides physical change, we were also interested in the socio-economic composition/
change of these specific areas, so we realized interviews with the inhabitants. We completed a total of 133 interviewsto some extent evenly distributed among the case
study areashence counting for a stratified random sampling method. The entire field
study was carried out during the period December 2006 January 2007. Interviews were
of two types, face-to-face and back mail with two main goals: to quantitatively asses
the socio-economic composition of the areas population and to qualitatively comprehend
awareness of the surroundings and perception of change of the interviewees. In the socioeconomic part of the study, we identify four dimensions of change, namely: (1) migration
due to transition mainly traceable through the percentage of population settling in the area
after 1990; (2) education status of the population which we identify with the percentage of
population graduating only from primary schools;7 (3) unemployment rate and (4) economic status which we evaluate by setting a three-degree scale where the 50,000 Lek per
month figure (Albanian Central Bank exchange rate on 29 December 2006 was US$1
94.14 Lek) would be the border dividing low- and middle-low-income groups from the
middle-upper- and upper-income groups. Additionally, we aimed to qualitatively determine the awareness people had of their surroundings and the way they perceived
change. The following parts of the paper deal with findings of the study as compared to
similar activities elsewhere across CEE.
Compared Physical Features of Socialist and Post-socialist Tirana
In this part, we will proceed by analysing physical transformations in each area and by
making a comparative evaluation of all the findings to assess the degree of change.
The case study area near Medrese shows urban dynamics due to liberal economy conditioned by its organic urban pattern. This condition has produced a spatial duality in the
area. The outer partsmainly primary and secondary street frontagesshow a higher
degree of change when compared to the inner parts of the area. Besides the degree, type
of change also differs between the two parts. While the change in the outer parts is
mainly in the form of apartment buildings in existing empty plots, the inner parts change
in a more fragmented wayby tearing down old, historic single-floor houses and building
new ones two to three floors high, thus silently increasing density (Figures 7 and 8).
Similar practices were observed in Budapest (Dingsdale, 1999a; Tosics, 2006), the only
difference is in urban spatiality: while in Tirana this happened in the inner city in Budapest, the process was observed in the suburbs. While in Budapest families bought their
land in Tirana land was simply occupied. These dynamics count for a slight rise in the
skyline with the percentage of buildings higher than five floors going up from 0% to 1.2%,
a slight PR increase from 0.41 to 0.43 and a change in ground floor usage mainly on street
frontages has occurred in the area. The area is characterized by a deteriorating pre-1990
urban fabric79% of the buildings at higher-than-average riskeach passing day threatened by the superimposed post-1990 development. Liberal economy conditions have also
triggered the consumption of public spacewhich was reduced by 4% of its share on the
total area.
Under liberal economy conditions, the Block was transformed from a quiet lowdensity elite residential area to the citys busiest and most crowded activity centre.

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1851

Figure 7. Figure-ground layout in the area near Medrese before 1990

Actually, it may be classified as the most valuable piece of land in Tirana due to its central
location and the prestige inherited from the communist regime. Physical change had one
major development trend: building on every available empty area (Figures 9 and 10). With
respect to its piecemeal feature, this development shows similar characteristics to other
central location transformations elsewhere in CEE (Kreja, 2006; Tasan-Kok, 2006;
Kiss, 2007; Ruoppila, 2007; Temelova, 2007). This development is everything but
planned since it completely neglected not only the low-rise but also the high-rise existing
fabric and had very little public involvement. The picture therefore differs clearly, for
example, from Prague where strict codes helped preserve the historical heritage and
directed the transformation trend mainly to the refurbishment of this heritage (Adair
et al., 1999; Sykora, 1999), but shows similar trends to developments around the West
Balkans (Vujovic & Petrovic, 2007). This type of pseudo urban infill in the Block
doubled the built-up fabric. The fact is clearly visible through the PR change in the
area from 0.17 before 1990 to 0.35 in the present.
The area has largely changed its ground floor function from residential to commercial,
office and service. However, it has preserved its high prestige, both commercially and residentially. While only 4% of the ground floors were non-residential during socialism, this
figure increased to 90% currently. Additionally, the unusual heightsdictated by the free
marked forces and facilitated by the lack of proper codesapplied on the new buildings

1852

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

Figure 8. Current figure-ground layout in the area near Medrese

increased the areas skyline, resulting in a new artificial relief more dynamic than the pre1990 ones. Figures on the share of buildings with more than five floors tell of a rise from
4% to 26%. The new development has consumed most of the areas public spaces by
decreasing its share over the total area from 50% to 11% and indirectly has led to the
neglect of the old fabric with 61% of the buildings above average risk level. Concluding,
the areas own characteristics counted for its high degree of physical transformation.
The Irfan Tomini block case study area has experienced significant changes due to
liberal economy conditions. The major field of these changes has been the public open
space with a decrease by 54% in its share of the total area. The fragmentation of public
space, especially in the housing estates, is similar to post-socialist changes mainly in
cities with a less-regulated development pattern (Hirt & Stanilov, 2007 on Sofia; Ioan,
2007 on Bucharest; Vujovic & Petrovic, 2007 on Belgrade; Stanilov, 2007c on a
general discussion). The socialist layout and post-socialist infill processes are also
similar but housing estates in Tiranaif they can at all be called sodiffer mainly
from their counterparts in other post-socialist cities (e.g. Sofia or Tallinn) in building
height. While the housing estates are mostly high-rise pre-fabricated blocks in most of
the CEE cities, in Tirana, they have a standard height of five storeys, which, with rare
exceptions, constitutes the residential skyline limit. This is thought to be mainly due to
modernist city building principles (Stanilov, 2007b) and cost-reducing (excluding the
elevator) housing policies.

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1853

Figure 9. Figure-ground layout in the Block before 1990

Figure 10. Current figure-ground layout in the Block

The area has increased in PR from an initial value of 0.24 to 0.36 due to a considerable
increase in its built-up fabric (Figures 11 and 12). This new fabric has also affected the
skyline of the areaincreasing it by at least two floors. In the north-west part of the
area, new development is even of a higher floor number due to its national street frontage.
Some other singular high-rise developments are seen near this part of the case study area.
The percentage of buildings higher than five storeys increased from 0% to 10%.8 Liberal
economy also counted for the change of usage in the ground floors of the main axes.

1854

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

Figure 11. Figure-ground layout in the Irfan Tomini block before 1990

Figure 12. Current figure-ground layout in the Irfan Tomini block

Additionally, as an unavoidable consequence of the land market, all the new buildings
were a priori designed for a commercial use of the ground floor, certainly with implications on pricing. The process resulted in an increase in non-residential ground floor
usage from 6% before 1990 to 15% at present.
The physical features analyses tell of typical post-socialist urban transformations in all
of the case study areas. However, the amount of change differs in each area, depending on
the areas location and pre-1990 urban texture. The case study area near Medrese is the one
with the lowest amount of change due to its dense organic pattern and highly compartmentalized land in terms of property. Although it is closer to the citys centre than Irfan
Tomini block, it has shown a smaller change in ground floor usage due to its shorter
main street frontage and relatively low amount of post-1990 buildings. The Block
was the area with the highest degree of change for all the attributes showing typical
features of a citys central activity area. Table 1 gives a summary of socialist and postsocialist physical features of all the case study areas.

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1855

Table 1. Compared pre- and post-1990 physical conditions in all the case study areas

Area
Medrese
The "Block"
Irfan Tomini

Buildings over
five storeys high
(% of total fabric
Buildings within or
in area)
lower-than-average
condition (current %
Pre1990 Current of total fabric in area)
0%
4%
0%

1.2%
26%
10%

79%
39%
50%

Non-residential
ground floor
usage (% of total
fabric in area)

Public spaces
(% of total area)

PR

Pre1990

Current

Pre1990

Current

Pre1990

Current

2%
4%
6%

6%
90%
15%

0.41
0.17
0.24

0.43
0.35
0.36

12%
50%
86%

8%
11%
32%

Socio-economic Composition of the Study Areas

Socio-economic analysis of the case study areas shows differences between their populations. Differences are present in almost all of the features the study included. All the
three areas differ in the composition of population according to year of settlement, unemployment rate, education level, income class and awareness of the surroundings.
The case study area near Medrese shows a relatively compact social composition
only 34% of the households have settled in the area after 1990of low- and middle-lowincome class with 83% of the interviewee earning less than 50,000 Lek per month. The
27% figure counts for a high unemployment rate higher even than those of Tirana (24%)
and Albania (23%) (UNDP Albania, 2004). People generally are of low education
statusthe relatively high incidence of interviewee (34%) having finished only mandatory
education being the proofand show little awareness of the surroundings. Spatial outcomes
of the market economy can be said to gradually replace the old urban fabric as 40% of the
interviewee gave reference and rated new post-1990 buildings before the old ones. It was
further observed that little interaction occurs between people living in single-family
houses (the locals) and those living in apartment houses built after 1990 (the new comers).
The Block shows a mixed social composition with an almost even distribution of the
population by income classes. Nevertheless, only 35% of the interviewees reported
earning less than 50,000 Lek per month. Households settling after 1990 constitute 70%
of the total. The unemployed were curiously in large numbers in the area counting for
35% of the interviewees. Education status of the inhabitants is relatively high with a
mere 16% having only mandatory education. This fact has counted for an overall good
awareness of the surroundings. Spatial outcomes of the market economy are very strongly
reflected in the mental perception of the interviewees. One most interesting example is the
fact that people mostly call the former Enver Hoxhas villa with the name of the cafe-bar
operating on it rather than as it was known in the communist era. Mentally, the new urban
fabric has strong effects on the interviewees in this area as 70% of the interviewees gave
reference and rated new post-1990 buildings before the old ones.
The Irfan Tomini block case study area shows a wide range of social compositions. Half
of the interviewees were of low and middle-low income. The other half was divided into two
nearly equal parts between middle and middle high- and high-income classes. Unemployment is at the 26% ratethe lowest of all the case studies but still higher than that of Tirana
or Albania. People generally are of low education status (26% just only primary school
graduates) and cannot be said to fully be aware of the surroundings. Spatial outcomes of

1856

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

the market economy can be said to gradually replace the old urban fabric as 55% of the
interviewees gave reference and rated new post-1990 buildings before the old ones.
Comparative Analyses
By cross-comparing the physical and socio-economic results of the analyses, we obtain a
more complete picture of the post-socialist urban transformations in the Albanian capital
during transition. Table 2 gives a combined summary of physical changes and socioeconomic conditions in all the three case study areas.
It can be inferred from the table that people of low income with a relatively low level of
education who showed little awareness of the surroundings inhabited case study area near
Medrese. This area, due to its dense organic pattern, is the one experiencing the lowest
amount of change. As a consequence, difference in social composition is lower compared
to the other case studies because of the low number of the new comers. Construction of
new six-to-seven-storeyed apartment buildings in the outer parts of the area is creating a
kind of artificial barrier, thus spatially and visually buffering the zone from its surroundings.
The Block case study area is considered one of the most prestigious sites of Tirana
and, as such, has a social class composition of high income (the highest of the three
examples). In this area, education level and awareness of the surroundings were higher
than the other examples. With 70% of the inhabitants settling after 1990 and 65%
earning more than 50,000 Lek per month, and supported by a relatively good condition
of the built-up fabric, the area is showing obvious signs of a gentrification process.
Spatially, this is being reflected in the construction of new offices while refurbishment
of the old fabric especially the old villas located in the inner parts of the area is not
taking place mainly due to the lack of resources and speculative expectations. This
condition is clearly different from elsewhere in CEE where, for example, in Prague or
Budapest, the process was quite the reverse. CBD office space was provided by the refurbishment of the old fabricmainly facilitated by strict codes on heritage conservation
(Adair et al., 1999; Dingsdale, 1999a, 1999b; Sykora, 1999). Only recently have individual, high-profile (flagship) developments on empty plots begun to shape and transform the
surrounding fabric in CBDs of capitals around the Eastern Bloc (see Sykora, 2007;
Temelova, 2007 on Prague and Kreja, 2006 on Warsaw).
While the first two case studies can be rated as extreme cases in income, education and area
perception, the Irfan Tomini block case study area holds a position between the first two
Table 2. Summary of physical changes and socio-economic conditions in all the case
study areas

Area
Medrese
The
"Block"
Irfan
Tomini

% of
households
settling
after 1990
(%)

Only
Unemployed primary
(% of the
school
interviewee) graduates
(%)
(%)

% of those
earning
less than
50,000 Lek
per month
(%)

Rise in
buildings
over five
storeys
high (%)

Buildings
of lowerthanaverage
condition
(%)

Ground
floor
usage
change PR
(%)
change

Decrease
in public
spaces
(%)

34
70

27
35

34
16

83
35

1.2
22

79
39

4
86

0.02
0.18

4
39

75

26

26

49

10

50

0.12

54

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1857

examples showing a more even distribution of social classes but still a considerably low education rate. In other words, it can be classified as the middle way between a very high change
in the Block and a more constrained change in case study area near Medrese. Here sociospatial segregation differentiation is visible building-by-building, between the old and the
new, with some slum-like development blossoming south-west of the area and spreading
southwards in Tirana. The high incidence of households settling after 1990 is related to
the relatively low prices compared to areas within the inner ring and the Block, the continuously increasing building stock triggered by empty areas and the restructuring of population in the housing estates as a result of inner migration. The old inhabitants leaving the
housing estates either for better places or migrating outside the country are replaced by
others coming from all around the country. The area remains mainly residential with only
a 9% ground floor usage change largely visible on the long main axis frontage.
Interviewees in all the three areas indicated that spatial outcomes of liberal economy
had changed their mental perception of the built environment. Although some taboos
have still deep roots on peoples minds, the overall trend is towards the new. Buildings
of the post-communist era are becoming the new landmarks of the city, thus overwhelming
the old urban fabric. This phenomenon is becoming increasingly dangerous to the point of
erasing the past. Perhaps, the most appalling evidence of the whole qualitative part of the
study is the fact that none of the interviewees mentioned the 15-storeyed Tirana
International Hotel buildingTirana and Albanias landmark during the communist era.
It can be said that socio-economic dynamism in Tirana follows a parallel path with its
spatial change. As to the question who triggered whom?, the answer remains open. On
one side, social class differentiation inevitably leads to space partitioning, meanwhile the
existing urban fabric of Tirana has mainly influenced segregation of the new comers. The
crude truth is that Tirana is changing at a tremendous pace while the positive outcomes of
this change are still to come.
Conclusions
The literature clearly suggests that the new liberal forces of transition have changed both
the social and the spatial urban dimensions of the socialist city. In a more detailed scale,
our study unveiled evidence that inner city post-socialist urban transformations bear morphological, location and socio-economic dimensions. The findings described above
suggest that even in a nearly uncontrolled (chaotic) post-socialist mediumsuch as the
Albanian examplethe morphological layout of a given area is a key refraining agent
to the frenetic rhythms of spatial change. The issue is clearly illustrated by the comparison
of the three different urban layouts in Tirana where the densest pattern counts for the smallest amount of change compared to the looser gridiron and socialist era patterns.
The centrality in the location of the gridiron pattern has increased the amount of change
and also has led it towards specific directions. The Block Tiranas would be CBDis
arguably the only area in Tirana showing clear signs of social gentrification. This fact bears
great importance in the case of Tirana because, as the other two case studies demonstrated,
clustering in the social aspect was rather a taboo in a city dominated by individualism.
Findings about the social dimension were also of significant importance preserving to
some extent peculiarities of Albanian society. The lack of spatial interaction between
the old and the new and of social interaction between the settled and the new
comers is opening gaps in both dimensions, resulting in an involuntary economic

1858

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

segregation in Tirana. The whole process is taking place in so narrow spatial dimensions
that the notion of clustering which segregation implies has vanished and a more extreme
condition of this differentiation is seen. This we identify with Balkanization which,
besides individuality (not clustering), implies also the hostility concept clearly
visible all around Tiranas urban core and, to some extent, justifiable by the land scarcity.
Urban transformations in post-socialist Tirana show trends neither of going to its socialist past nor of progressing to the advanced capitalist model. It is clear that Tirana by no
means is replicating its socialist past as much as it is obvious that spatial outcomes are
everything but those of a capitalist model. Therefore, none of the involutionary or evolutionary theories is supported. The Third World city development model plausibly
applies to the peri-urban areas, but inner city transformations preserve a different character
attributed also to other former Eastern Bloc post-socialist cities. We believe that a
mutation of the recombinant model of distorted capitalist and socialist features that
coexist in a post-socialist/postmodern spatiality is the best explanation attributable to
inner city development in Tirana.
Nowadays, Tirana is arguably the most dynamic city in Europe. Socio-economic dynamism has reflected itself in the built environment of the city. Spatial changes undergone by
Tirana under economical transition can be synonymous to chaos. The urban texture
formed by this ongoing process is characterized by a loss of identity. While repeated
urban stereotypes during socialist planning counted for a spatial monotony and stuffiness
in Tirana, the frenetic rhythms of misused liberalism raised to the point of killing the
urban. Elsewhere, other post-socialist CEE cities with similar characteristics to Tirana
(lacking a medieval history) successfully implement policies to build a distinct urban identity (Young & Kaczmarek, 2008 on Lodz), whereas the Albanian capital is a city in
struggle for its identity. As long as the situation persists, the place of Tirana in a global
context remains obscure and the opportunity to rediscover its forgotten identity or even
formulate a new one (Dimitrovska-Andrews et al., 2007, p. 443) remains vague.
Pertaining to its very dynamics, Tirana represents a most interesting area of study. Our
paper concentrated mainly on socio-spatial dynamics of the inner city, but this exciting
laboratory has a lot of intact areas to be discovered such as the peri-urban developments,
land market conditions, social segregation, etc. Notwithstanding huge barriers posed by
the lack of adequate and continuous data, urban developments in Tirana call for further
research. Certainly, further research is needed to better understand and reveal Tiranas
development path with respect to its urban condition, the change undergone according
to its urban past and the trends determining its urban future. Nearly two decades after
the collapse of communism, Albania finds itself with a pseudo-metropolis at the crossroads. Tirana is one of the losers in the post-socialist struggle for a place in the global
arena. Its mere loss of identity, deterritorialization as a consequence of the Balkanization
of space and the uncertainty regarding its future constitute the complex equation the city
has to solve in order to trace its path towards becoming a European capital.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for comments on an earlier draft
of this paper and Jim Berry for comments and editing the final draft. Municipality of
Tirana, Archives of the National Planning Institute and Municipal Units 5 and 8 provided
valuable information and the condition maps.

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1859

Notes
1. In this part, we give reference on urban pattern effects mainly by a classification made by Stanilov (2007b,
p. 9).
2. This study provides a closer look to performance in the transition period of Albania, FYROM, Bulgaria,
Romania and Poland with secondary data from World Bank Development Indicators.
3. In this gradient, we have omitted the original other East European subcategory set by Tosics for the
following reasons: (a) they would be represented by Moscow and the sheer scale difference between
Moscow and Tirana would be inconvenient and misleading for our study; (b) development trends of
these cities, especially Moscow, deviate from the main trajectory of the capitalist/Third World city gradient (Tosics, 2005; Stanilov, 2007b) and (c) the huge differences between the communist legacies of
Russia and Albania (Boren & Gentile, 2007).
4. See also Kiss (2007) for a discourse on brownfield revitalization in Budapest and Kiss (2004) for further
notes on brownfield transformations in Hungary.
5. For a more complete discussion of the urbanization conditions in Albania and Tirana during the communist period as well as discussions on diverted migration, under urbanization and the zero urban growth
hypothesis, see Sjoberg (1992, 1994).
6. The last adjourned (official) condition maps of Tiranaas obtained from Tirana Municipality, Municipality
Unit No. 5 and GIS Albaniabelong to the year 2005, and therefore most recent developments as spotted by
onsite observations (especially development north-west of Irfan Tomini block) are not represented.
7. We do not deal with literacy rateprobably a better determinantnot only because fighting illiteracy was
a principle of the communist period and illiteracy rate was insignificant, but also because primary education
was mandatory at the time, thus rendering our variable a more suitable one for this specific study.
8. It is clearly seen that the increase in high-rise buildings is some way off the drastic fall in public space.
This is mainly because public space in the inner parts of this housing estate is mostly appropriated by
single families who build low-rise illegal villas or by residents of these estates who build garages for their
new carsthe most valuable asset after the house in post-socialist economies. Furthermore, green space
has completely lost over (illegal) parking.

References
Adair, A., Berry, J., McGreal, S., Sykora, L., Parsa, A. G. & Redding, B. (1999) Globalization of real estate
markets in Central Europe, European Planning Studies, 7(3), pp. 295305.
Aliaj, B., Lulo, K. & Myftiu, G. (2004) Tirana: The Challenge of Urban Development (Skofja Loka: Sloalba).
Andrusz, G. (2001) Cities: Post-socialist, in: N.J. Smelser & P.B. Baltes (Eds) International Encyclopedia of the
Social and Behavioural Sciences, pp. 1835 1840 (Oxford: Elsevier).
Berlage Institute (2004) Tirana Metropolis (Rotterdam: Berlage Institute).
Bertaud, A. (2006) The spatial structures of Central and Eastern European cities, in: S. Tsenkova & Z. NedovicBudic (Eds) The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe: Space, Institutions and Policy, pp. 92110
(Heidelberg: Springer).
Boren, T. & Gentile, M. (2007) Metropolitan processes in post-communist states: An introduction, Geografiska
Annaler B, 89(2), pp. 95110.
Cavric, B. I. & Nedovic-Budic, Z. (2007) Urban development, legislation, and planning in post-socialist Zagreb,
in: K. Stanilov (Ed.) The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and
Eastern Europe after Socialism, Geojournal Library, Vol. 92, pp. 385410 (Dordrecht: Springer).
Deda, L. & Tsenkova, S. (2006) Poverty and inequality in Greater Tirana: The reality of peri-urban areas, in:
S. Tsenkova & Z. Nedovic-Budic (Eds) The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe: Space, Institutions
and Policy, pp. 113130 (Heidelberg: Springer).
Dimitrovska-Andrews, K., Mihelic, B. & Stanic, I. (2007) The post-socialist urban restructuring of Ljubljana:
Strengthening identity, in: K. Stanilov (Ed.) The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe After Socialism, Geojournal Library, Vol. 92, pp. 427 445
(Dordrecht: Springer).
Dingsdale, A. (1999a) Budapests built environment in transition, GeoJournal, 49(1), pp. 6378.
Dingsdale, A. (1999b) New geographies of post-socialist Europe, The Geographical Journal, 165(2),
pp. 145153.

1860

I. Nase & M. Ocakci

Felstehausen, H. (1999) Urban growth and land use changes in Albania: With cases, describing urban land claims,
Land Tenure Center Working Paper No 31, Albania Series, University of WisconsinMadison.
Hall, D. (1999) Representations of place: Albania, The Geographical Journal, 165(2), pp. 161172.
Hamilton, F. E. I. (1999) Transformation and space in Central and Eastern Europe, The Geographical Journal,
165(2), pp. 135144.
Hamilton, F. E. I., Dimitrovska-Andrews, K. & Pichler-Milanovich, N. (Eds) (2005) Transformation of Cities in
Central and Eastern Europe (Tokyo: UNU Press).
Hirt, S. (2007) Suburbanizing Sofia: Characteristics of post-socialist peri-urban change, Urban Geography, 28(8),
pp. 755780.
Hirt, S. & Kovachev, A. (2006) The changing spatial structure of post-socialist Sofia, in: S. Tsenkova & Z.
Nedovic-Budic (Eds) The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe: Space, Institutions and Policy,
pp. 113130 (Heidelberg: Springer).
Hirt, S. & Stanilov, K. (2007) The perils of post-socialist transformation: Residential development in Sofia, in: K.
Stanilov (Ed.) The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern
Europe after Socialism, Geojournal Library, Vol. 92, pp. 215 244 (Dordrecht: Springer).
INSTAT (2005) Shqiperia ne shifra/Albania in figures, INSTAT, Tirana. Available at www.instat.gov.al
(accessed 18 April 2007).
Ioan, A. (2007) The peculiar history of (post)communist public places and spaces: Bucharest as a case study, in:
K. Stanilov (Ed.) The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern
Europe after Socialism, Geojournal Library, Vol. 92, pp. 301 312 (Dordrecht: Springer).
Keivani, R., Parsa, A. & McGreal, S. (2002) Institutions and urban change in a globalizing world: The case of
Warsaw, Cities, 19(3), pp. 183193.
King, R. & Vullnetari, J. (2003) Migration and development in Albania, Sussex Centre for Migration Research
Working Paper C5, Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty, Brighton.
Kiss, E. (2004) Spatial impacts of post-socialist industrial transformation in the major Hungarian cities, European
Urban and Regional Studies, 11(1), pp. 8187.
Kiss, E. (2007) The evolution of industrial areas in Budapest after 1989, in: K. Stanilov (Ed.) The Post-Socialist
City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe after Socialism, Geojournal
Library, Vol. 92, pp. 147 170 (Dordrecht: Springer).
Kotus, J. (2006) Changes in the spatial structure of a large Polish cityThe case of Poznan, Cities, 23(5),
pp. 364381.
Kreja, K. (2006) Spatial imprints of urban consumption: Large-scale retail development in Warsaw, in: S. Tsenkova & Z. Nedovic-Budic (Eds) The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe: Space, Institutions and Policy,
pp. 253274 (Heidelberg: Springer).
Leetmaa, K. & Tammaru, T. (2007) Suburbanization in countries in transition: Destination of suburbanizers in the
Tallinn metropolitan area, Geografiska Annaler B, 89(2), pp. 127146.
Lukic, A. & Jakovcic, M. (2004) Location and function of hypermarkets and shopping centers in Zagreb, Dela,
22, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, pp. 39 54. Available at http://www.ff.uni-lj.si/oddelki/geo/
Publikacije/Dela/dela_22.htm (accessed 8 April 2008).
Nase, I. (2007) Impact of liberal economy on the urban pattern of Tirana: Pre and post transitional urban
dynamics. Unpublished Master thesis in Urban Design, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul.
Nedovic-Budic, Z., Tsenkova, S. & Marcuse, P. (2006) The urban mosaic of post-socialist Europe, in: S. Tsenkova & Z. Nedovic-Budic (Eds) The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe: Space, Institutions and Policy,
pp. 320 (Heidelberg: Springer).
Ourednicek, M. (2007) Differential suburban development in the Prague urban region, Geografiska Annaler B,
89(2), pp. 111126.
Petrakos, G. & Totev, S. (2000) Economic structure and change in the Balkan region: Implications for integration
transition and economic cooperation, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 24(1), pp. 95113.
Petrakos, G. & Totev, S. (2001) Economic performance and structure in the Balkan region, in: G. Petrakos & S.
Totev (Eds) The Development of the Balkan Region, pp. 329 (Aldershot: Ashgate).
Petrovic, M. (2005) Cities after socialism as a research issue, DP34 South East Europe Series, LSE, Centre for the
Study of Global Governance, London. Available at http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/global/Publications/
DiscussionPapers/DP34.pdf (accessed 9 April 2008).
Prelogovic, V. (2004) Socio-spatial polarisation in Zagreb, Dela, 21, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, pp.
381 391. Available at http://www.ff.uni-lj.si/oddelki/geo/Publikacije/Dela/dela_21.htm (accessed 8 April
2008).

Urban Pattern Dichotomy in Tirana

1861

Ruoppila, S. (2007) Establishing a market-orientated urban planning system after state socialism: The case of
Tallinn, European Planning Studies, 15(3), pp. 405427.
Sic, M. (2007) Spatial and functional changes in recent urban development of Zagreb, Dela, 27, University of
Ljubljana, Ljubljana, pp. 5 15. Available at http://www.ff.uni-lj.si/oddelki/geo/Publikacije/Dela/dela_27.
htm (accessed 8 April 2008).
. (1992) Underurbanisation and the zero urban growth hypothesis: Diverted migration in Albania,
Sjoberg, O
Geografiska Annaler B, 74(1), pp. 319.
. (1994) Rural retention in Albania: Administrative restrictions on urban-bound migration, East
Sjoberg, O
European Quarterly, 28(2), pp. 205233.
Stanilov, K. (Ed.) (2007a) The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and
Eastern Europe After Socialism, Geojournal Library, Vol. 92 (Dordrecht: Springer).
Stanilov, K. (2007b) Taking stock of post-socialist urban development: A recapitulation, in: K. Stanilov (Ed.) The
Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe After Socialism,
Geojournal Library, Vol. 92, pp. 3 17 (Dordrecht: Springer).
Stanilov, K. (2007c) Democracy, markets and public space in the transitional societies of Central and Eastern
Europe, in: K. Stanilov (Ed.) The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central
and Eastern Europe After Socialism, Geojournal Library, Vol. 92, pp. 269 283 (Dordrecht: Springer).
Stanilov, K. (2007d) Urban development policies in Central and Eastern Europe during the transition period and
their impact on urban form, in: K. Stanilov (Ed.) The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe After Socialism, Geojournal Library, Vol. 92, pp. 347 359
(Dordrecht: Springer).
Steinfuhrer, A. & Haase, A. (2007) Demographic change as a future challenge for cities in East Central Europe,
Geografiska Annaler B, 89(2), pp. 183195.
Sykora, L. (1999) Changes in the internal spatial structure of post-communist Prague, GeoJournal, 49(1),
pp. 7989.
Sykora, L. (2007) Office development and post-communist city formation: The case of Prague, in: K. Stanilov
(Ed.) The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe
After Socialism, Geojournal Library, Vol. 92, pp. 117 145 (Dordrecht: Springer).
Tasan-Kok, T. (2006) Institutional and spatial change, in: S. Tsenkova & Z. Nedovic-Budic (Eds) The Urban
Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe: Space, Institutions and Policy, pp. 5170 (Heidelberg: Springer).
Temelova, J. (2007) Flagship developments and the physical upgrading of the post-socialist inner city: The
Golden Angel project in Prague, Geografiska Annaler B, 89(2), pp. 169181.
Tirana Municipality (2003) Bulletin 2003, Gervis, Tirana.
Tosics, I. (2005) City development in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990: The impact of internal forces, in:
F. E. I. Hamilton, K. Dimitrovska-Andrews & N. Pichler-Milanovich (Eds) Transformation of Cities in
Central and Eastern Europe, pp. 4478 (Tokyo: UNU Press).
Tosics, I. (2006) Spatial restructuring in post-socialist Budapest, in: S. Tsenkova & Z. Nedovic-Budic (Eds) The
Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe: Space, Institutions and Policy, pp. 131150 (Heidelberg: Springer).
Tsenkova, S. & Nedovic-Budic, Z. (Eds) (2006a) The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe: Space, Institutions
and Policy (Heidelberg: Springer).
Tsenkova, S. & Nedovic-Budic, Z. (2006b) The post-socialist urban world, in: S. Tsenkova & Z. Nedovic-Budic
(Eds) The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe: Space, Institutions and Policy, pp. 349366 (Heidelberg:
Springer).
UNDP Albania (2004) Millennium Development Goals Global TargetsLocal Approaches: Tirana Regional
Report, Tirana. Available at www.undp.org.al (accessed 18 April 2007).
Vujovic, S. & Petrovic, M. (2007) Belgrades post-socialist urban evolution: Reflections by the actors in the
development process, in: K. Stanilov (Ed.) The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations
in Central and Eastern Europe After Socialism, Geojournal Library, Vol. 92, pp. 361 383 (Dordrecht:
Springer).
Wiener, R. (1999) Urban development in East GermanySpecific features of urban transformation processes,
GeoJournal, 49(1), pp. 4351.
World Bank, World Development Indicators. Available at publications.worldbank.org/subscriptions/WDI/olddefault.htm (accessed 1516 March 2007).
Young, C. & Kaczmarek, S. (2008) The socialist past and postsocialist urban identity in Central and Eastern
Europe: The case of Lodz Poland, European Urban and Regional Studies, 15(1), pp. 5370.