Tirana has made astonishing strides over the last few years under the new leadership team led by mayor Erion Veliaji. In the past there have been negative perceptions about the city as a kind of ‘wild West’. Two programmes out of many are especially impressive. The first is the Orbital Forest of 2 million trees conceived in collaboration with Stefano Boeri and currently being planted with completion due by 2030. A large proportion is now donated and is planted by kids with a name tag on their birthday as ‘a city for kids is a city for all’. The second is reconstructing the city with the interests of children in mind, such as building 56 playgrounds in 56 months and to do that involved clearing many obstacles. These places have become intergenerational gathering places. In addition, 40 km of bikeways have been built form scratch encouraging cycling of all ages.
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Humanizing the City, Playfully – The City of Tirana’s Transformation
Previous from working for Free Trade Zones, Foreign Investments and Diaspora, she served as an Advisor in the Cabinet of Mayor of Tirana, focused mainly on areas related to sustainable development of the city, through coordination of large scale projects. She has a background in Economics from Utrecht University in Netherland and postgraduate studies in Management, Organisations and Governance at the London School of Economics (LSE) in the United Kingdom.
Charles Landry works with cities around the world to help them make the most of their potential and facilitates complex urban change projects. His aim is to connect the triad culture, creativity and city making. He is co-founder of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival. He twice chaired the European Capital of Innovation Award as well as the EU Research & Innovation Commission project ‘The human-centred city: Opportunities for citizens through research and innovation’. He has published extensively – most recently ‘The Civic City in a Nomadic World’, ‘The Creative Bureaucracy’ (with Margie Caust), ‘An Advanced Introduction to the Creative City’, ‘Psychology & the City’ (with Chris Murray) and ‘The Digitized City’. You can download these books as PDF files via Charles’ website: https://charleslandry.com