Designing "based" on place attachment-Tirana case study

Abstract

People's knowledge, understandings, cognitions and beliefs about various aspects of the physical environments are different. Designers and architects while projecting have their own feelings about a place but they should also keep in mind the personal spaces, territoriality, family and group use of space, crowding, environmental meaning, and other topics. The problem of designing focusing and respecting the sense of space is maybe the most difficult problem in the design field. To understand the process of designing is one of the most complicated and complex issue in the design field. This process when is linked to feelings and place attachment gets into a difficult puzzle and labyrinth of problems that even the expert designer feels as novice. The paper outlines the concepts of place attachment, some of the developments in the city of Tirana, and in the end mentioning some of the buildings, places, and urban plans which left marks in their memories. The aim of the paper is mentioning some of the drastic changes in the city of Tirana, Albania, during different periods of time, some feelings and emotions for places of buildings that don't exist anymore and how these changes had remained strong in the minds, memories and phrases of Tirana's inhabitant. The analyses will precede describing and comparing some of the non- existing places, the replacing buildings and if they respected any of the facade elements, the architecture , the urban impact or the social environments and feelings that the places kept with them. The paper approach is based also on interviews, observations and readings regarding the sense of place, place attachment and feelings of habitants of Tirana on the old and new projects situated in the city of great developments.