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Research
Subject
Post-Socialist Urban and Social Transformations in Tirana, Albania | Understanding morphological processes and urban growth
Primary and secondary supervisors
Dr Sam Griffiths and Dr Kayvan Karimi
Abstract
Blerta’s research focuses on the urban transformation of Tirana, the capital of Albania, following the end of the communist regime in the early 1990s.
While rapid urbanisation fueled by mass migration from countryside to cities has been commonly observed in many Eastern European countries, Albania’s post-socialist urban form has been strongly influenced by a dramatic upheaval in land ownership that has taken place in the context of an inadequately developed legal system and involved the systematic appropriation of open space by developers.
The impact of this urbanisation on Albanian society has been profound but currently there are no systematic studies of the morphological processes that have transformed Albanian cities.
The variety of post-socialist urban transformation morphologies can tell us much about the particular nature of urban growth in Albania under conditions of unrestrained, loosely regulated, development. Drawing on the Tirana case study, this research aims to investigate the nature of social change in the Albanian context, and the way in which ‘planned ’and ‘unplanned’ urban environments have contributed to the emergence of distinctive modes and models of urban life.
Biography
Blerta graduated as an Urban Planner (MSc) from Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary in 2010 and received an MA in Urban Design (MA) from the University of Westminster in 2012. During her initial studies she developed a particular interest in the fields of Regeneration, Informality (Informal Developments) and Spatial Analysis.
Professionally, as an urban planner/designer, she held various positions in the private sector as well as working for the central and local governments in Albania and in the UK.
In 2014 she joined Space Syntax Laboratory at The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies to pursue her doctorate on post-socialist urban transformations in her hometown Tirana. Since, she has been part of various research projects as Research Assistant and part time Post Graduate Teaching Assistant for the MSc Spatial Design: Architecture and Cities (MRes SD:AC) at the Space Syntax Laboratory.
Linkedin: Blerta Dino
Twitter @e9rul7
Blerta Dino Researchgate profile
- Publications and other work
Dino, B., Griffiths, S., and Karimi, K. (2016) “Autocratic planning systems challenged by unregulated urbanisation: Urban transformation in post-socialist Tirana, Albania.” The Regenerative City, PUARL 2016 Conference. San Francisco, California
Dino, B., Narvaez-Zertuche, L., Davis, H., Vaughan, L., and Griffiths, S. (2016) “Linking business records, cartographic sources and space syntax data to compare the spatial morphology of the furniture industry in two areas of nineteenth-century London” Urban History Group 2016: Re-Evaluating the Place of the City in History. Robinson College, University of Cambridge
Vaughan, L., Sailer, K., and Dino, B. (2016) “The Built Fabric of the East End - exploring the socio-spatial configuration of nineteenth century religious sites and spaces.” Urban History Group 2016: Re-Evaluating the Place of the City in History. Robinson College, University of Cambridge
Davis, H., and Dino, B. (2015) “Industrial morphologies: the historic London furniture industry and the new city of production.” 22nd ISUF Conference: City as organism. New visions for urban life, La Sapienza University, Rome.
Dino, B., Griffiths, S., and Karimi, K. (2015) “Post-Socialist Urban Evolution in Tirana: analysing morphogenetics of urban growth.” 22nd ISUF Conference: City as organism. New visions for urban life, La Sapienza University, Rome.
Dino, B. (2015) “Far from Predictions. Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture, by Rory Hyde”, Book Review for The Bartlett “LOBBY” magazine, (March, 2015)