Territorial-Environmental-Personal Crisis of Tirana River

The ‘Tirana River’ and especially the ‘Paskuqan’ area have been now for several years a big problem for city of Tirana. We have to take these disadvantages and turn them in advantages. We should start from the crises and end up with the right solution for this area. If we start to analyze this part of the City, we will see that there are not one but several problems. Let us start dividing these crises in three main topics.  

Territorial crisis- the first thing that we noticed when we were for the first time in ‘Paskuqan’ area were the waste and how polluted it was. There were garbage and waste all over the place. You could see children playing next to a pile of waste and the worst thing was that for them this was very normal and nobody was trying to make a move to clean the place. People were throwing garbage all the time on the streets.

 If this was not enough, the area also have a big infrastructural problem. The traffic is constant there. There are no traffic lights. You find people walking on the streets all the time. This due to the fact that the sidewalks there are so small. Along all the roads you can find big holes, that if you are traveling by car and you don’t see them.... you have to take your car to service. Above all, the biggest problem is the ‘bridge’ that connects two sides of the city. That is such a tiny bridge and the traffic caused by it, is so bad. Sometimes you might stay 1 hour waiting just to pass the bridge that is not more than 10 meters long. This bridge is the only chance for people to walk on the other side of the city. The next bridge is so far away that is impossible for people to reach it. This poor connection of two parts of the city has turned to be such a big problem for the area. When you are on the bridge, you can also see the ‘Tirana River’. It is sad when you see that a river like that, that is very important, is in such a poor conditions. The color of the water is dark brown and you see garbage floating with the river. In some parts of the year, the area near the river gets flooded and it causes considerable damages. With little bit of work and vision we can turn the river to be in our favor. When you are in ‘Paskuqan’ you can easily spot the fact that there are a lot of abandoned buildings and houses that are partially build.  

Environmental and personal crises- when we were walking aside the river we noticed that the conditions of the families who lived there were so poor. The problem of the waste was more visible in this part of ‘Paskuqan’. There were created some ’ghetto’ areas. This is a big problem not only for Paskuqan but also for the entire city. Most of the children in this area were uneducated and that seemed normal for them and their families. They are raised with the idea that they have to live like their parents and the education is not very important. We have to fix this. We have to show them that they can have a better life. They should know that they have options, options that can change their life for better. We tried to enter in these areas but we couldn’t. 

We tried to seek as much information as we could from outside. The access was not possible because they were not familiarized with the idea of new people entering in their space. We should open this spaces. We should connect this people with the rest of the city. While asking some people who lived there, we learned more problems and also what they wanted in their neighborhood. More schools and gardens! Parents were complaining that they needed at least one more school in the neighborhood. In all the area was only one school and was on the upper part of the river. So the children had to walk the “bridge” every day to go to school. Moreover, in all that area was only one small garden. In Paskuqan there is in not much to do especially if you are a child. No recreation spaces at all! Another problem for the residents of that area was the greenery. There were no public spaces, or parks were people could seat and relax. Only one big empty space that was in the center is now an informal market. People were trying to plant trees inside of their gardens to create that feeling of greenery in the area.

Case Studies



1-Chicago Riverwalk




( See the first Post)


2-New York-East River and Hudson waterfront

New York’s once ridiculously-polluted East River and Hudson waterfronts were long considered great places… to dump bodies. After transforming the banks on all sides over the last two decades with riverfront parks and paths, the city is further reimagining them through several new initiatives, including BIG’s Big U, a 10-mile-long protective system of landscaping and barriers around Manhattan that double as public space. But the most ambitious foray into the water itself is Family’s Plus Pool, a plus-shaped structure floating in the East River, filtering river water for swimming through a three-level purifying system. Final site selection is set to be announced later this year, and completion is set for 2019. Cities around the world are now shouting for similar facilities. 

3-San Antonio River project

Like LA, the oft-flooded San Antonio River in the 1920s was replaced (again, by the US Army Corps of Engineers) with a concrete lined “flood bypass channel”—essentially a storm sewer. But unlike LA, work on beautifying it started shortly afterward. By 1937 the San Antonio River Authority had begun building the River Walk, or Paseo del Rio, which over the next several decades added parks, walkways, gardens, restaurants, shops, and other attractions. While the most famous portion of the River Walk is the 2.5 mile stretch through downtown, the River Authority has continuously expanded the project, which now stretches 15 miles. The most recent effort is the $271 million Mission Reach Ecosystem Restoration and Recreation Project, transforming an eight mile stretch north of downtown with 15 miles of trails, restored native habitats, and amenities like benches, shade structures, bridges, and picnic benches. 

4-Los Angeles River Revitalization

The Valley Bikeway and Greenway project includes bike paths, shade devices, pedestrian walkways, landscaped areas, and educational signage. The biggest challenge, points out Gruen Associates partner Debra Gerod, is connecting existing paths in places they couldn’t be built originally, like under freeways and near bridges. It’s just the tip of the iceberg for the 51-mile LA River. The federal government and the city plan to invest over a billion dollars to reclaim an 11.5 mile stretch of the waterway, from Griffith Park to downtown, hoping to terrace walls, widen stretches, restore natural habitats, and open up riverbanks for recreation, following the guidelines of the LA Bureau of Engineering’s 2007 Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan, created by TetraTech, Civitas, Wenk, and Mia Lehrer + Associates. Frank Gehry and his firm Gehry Partners is working with the nonprofit L.A. River Revitalization Corp to transform the river into what one of their displays described as a “linear Central Park.” It’s unclear if this still-in-research-stage scheme will conflict with existing plans .