TAW: Tirana Architecture Weeks
Curators: Laura Pedata, Loris Rossi, Enrico Porfido
Universiteti Polis / Tirana / 18-28 September 2018
TAW- Tirana Architecture Weeks is entering its fourth edition. As they say, after the third edition, it is Tradition.
This years, the theme of the event is : [Co]habitation Tactics
The challenge is to address the issue of co-habitation, exploring contemporary tactics to define future spaces in architecture, city and landscape.
We sat with one of the curators, Enrico Porfido, and talked about this year’s issues and events.
1. WHAT IS TIRANA ARCHITECTURE WEEK?
Tirana Architecture Week (TAW) this year reached its fourth edition. This event started in 2012. It has been promoted and organized by POLIS University and the main aim of all editions is to promote exchange of knowledge between architectural practice and academic fields, trying to find a link between academic approach and real life. Each year we have approached issues of the city, envisioning city, envisioning Tirana, Architecture that Matters which was the topic of 2016. This year we are zooming a bit out trying to make TAW an international , a bigger architecture festival.
2. COHABITATION TACTICS
The topic is COHABITATION because at the turn of the 21st century what we are seeing everyday is that people are more and more hostile to living their life in cohabitation with other people and issues. What we wanted to tackle this year was to discuss how people relate to technology, tourism, memory of city/country. The aim of this year is to be as much interdisciplinary as we can. Showing that architecture is not only related to building but we deal with cities, how people live together. Facilitating people to live in a good relation between themselves is responsibility of an architect, urbanist and other professionals related to this field.
3. WHAT IS THIS YEAR’S DIFFERENCE TO PREVIOUS ONES?
Mainly TAW is covering one format, a format of workshops, lectures, expos, movies, performances. We aim this year to make it as much accessible to the public as possible. The difference to other years is that this edition we come back to the first edition, with the international scientific conference, which is the heart of 10 days festival. Also, this year we have compressed all activities in 10 days. We will that all the people coming for the events in Tirana, to extend their staying and try to join other events. This year we are trying to enter the city not only the in the streets but in places where people gather.. The main hubs that we are organizing the events are Destil Hostel, Tulla/Nouvelle Terrace, Reja where the international conference will take place in front of the National Gallery and the Liqeni Park, where we are going to do have one of the main performances in the Amphitheater.
4. CHOOSING PARTICIPANTS
This year’s calendar is really full. Half of the events are promoted by the FUTURE ARCHITECTURE platform in which we are a member as festival since a couple of editions. The way of participation is through a call that is organized every year in FUTURE ARCHITECTURE, where people apply and we as members select some of the proposals to joins us. Half of events are young architects that applied to this call and that we have selected according to our topic. The other half of events are organized in collaboration with Instituto Italiano di Cultura, Embassy of the Netherlands, Embassy of Spain, and other sponsors. This year we changed the approach in selecting participants. We used a couple of big names to attract the public but tried to promote young architects through talks, movie projections, easy communicating tools to give a voice to the new generation coming in Tirana.
5.WHAT MAKES TAW DIFFERENT FROM OTHER EVENTS?
TAW is not only a series of events but a container of events shown under the same frame. The festival is not only the lecture of somebody or the expo of somebody, but a series of lectures, movies, performances. TAW is like an entire body moving altogether. Every single event doesn’t have the same strength as the altogether. The aim is not only to enter the city but to emphasize that architecture is something interdisciplinary. We reached this goal with the international conference. We have people from other fields; ecology, geography, joining us in the events showing that we can consider our interest as professionals going broader than the architectural field itself.
6. WHY AN ALL ITALIAN CURATORIAL TEAM?
The choice of this year curatorial team being all italian, has been partially criticized from outside . The main question is why are Italians organizing the festival in Albania. I would like to thank first the rector that gave us the possibility to be part of this team, professor Besnik Aliaj, answering that although me myself haven’t been here for many years, the other two members, professor Loris Rossi and professor Laura Pedata, are here since 8 years. We feel Albanian in heart at least, not in passport, and we are contributing to this country with our work. The fact that we are all Italian in curatorial team is indicator of a phenomena that is happening in Albania in the last years. A lot of foreign architects are moving to Albania establishing their own offices here and transforming Tirana to a contemporary metropolis.
This year’s calendar is pretty full of interesting events:
Conference As an integral and substantial component of TAW 2018, the International Scientific Conference aims at exploring contemporary research activities and design tactics that deal with the topic of co-habitation from different perspectives and within different fields of interest, directly or indirectly related to architecture, city, and landscape. Each participant is free to associate one of the main contexts to one of the eight topics, exploring tactics that address the concept of co-habitation.
Events:
For more information, please visit:
http://www.tiranaarchitectureweek.com/
