New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

Identify the award category for which this initiative is being submitted
Reconnecting with nature

Email user
dielleza.tahiri@mail.polimi.it

Basic information
Initiative title
A Slow City

Full initiative Title
A Slow City: Rethinking Ferizaj’s Infrastructures, Landscapes and Urbanism

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
The project tends to apply the "slow food movement" in city planning and persistently seeks to propose possible resilient scenarios that promote environmental justice, soft mobility, sustainable design, heritage and social integration. Multi-scalar research that is based on multiple drivers of socio-economic and socio-political factors, is crucial in order to develop a generic design framework for a singular layered strategy that will follow the initial conceptual ambitions.

What was the geographical scope of your intiative?
Local

Where was your intiative implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Kosovo

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Ferizaj Municipality
Kosovo Field

Does your initiative address mainly urban or rural issues?
It addresses urban-rural linkages

Does your initiative refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)

Has your initiative benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your initiative won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Does your initiative has a minimum level of maturity? The minimum level of maturity is exemplified by stakeholder/ initiative promoter commitment to implement the initiative in practice and a clear methodology /approach.
Yes

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As an individual
Please provide the contact details for the intiative promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the intiative).
- First name: Dielleza
  Last name: Tahiri
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Kosovo
  If relevant, please select your other nationality: orth Macedonia
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Brahim Ademi 80
  Town: Ferizaj
  Postal code: 70000
  Country: Kosovo
  Direct Tel: +383 49 274 083
  E-mail: dielleza.tahiri@mail.polimi.it
  Website: http://diellezatahiri.com
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diellezatahiri/
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): diellezatahiri
- URL: http://instagram.com/diellezatahiri/
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): diellezatahiri
- URL: http://facebook.com/diellezatahiri
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): diellezatahiri
In case my initiative is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my initiative in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
NEB Newsletter

Description of the initiative
Please provide a summary of your initiative
ABSTRACT: This ‘research by design’ project critically argues about commercial-led productions of “fast” cities in Kosovo and their post-war transformations, particularly the city of Ferizaj. It further analyses in depth significant layers and factors from which the city was historically developed; elaborates patterns of transformations in the city centre and the city edges; illustrates uncontrolled urban growth, land changes, lack of public spaces, infrastructural chaos, abandoned landscapes, neglected agriculture, water pollution, industrial production, cultural values of identity and heritage; discusses about different contemporary and experimental approaches in urban planning; and introduces design strategies of layered, multi-scale, natural based solutions on how to tackle the fast urban growth issue and how to apply the slow food movement philosophy in urbanism, landscape and lifestyle combined into A Slow City.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
urban design

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
landscape design

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
environmental design

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
architecture

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
infrastructure

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of sustainability and how these have been/will be met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
Transformation of Ferizaj holds a remarkable economic value at one side and a terrible environmental justice on the other. Fast urban growth is having tons of consequences in multiple degradation levels such as continuous neglect of identity and heritage; irresponsible water management and pollution; illegal high-rise architecture; deforestation and climate change; infrastructural chaos; lack of public spaces; a series of abandoned landscapes; and constant loss of agricultural fields. Following systematic research, a methodology of sketch mapping and a selective criteria, this project comes to clarify several sites where most of the above issues intersect with one another. What all these sites have in common is the speed urban growth. Ergo, a reversed and contrasted concept is proposed to slow down this ‘speed’ and direct the city towards a sustainable future. Founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986, the slow food movement philosophy can be translated in urban planning concepts, respectively in slow landscapes and urbanism, towards a slow city, that totally deflect rapid developments and aims for more compact and sustainable cities. Therefore, the idea of Ferizaj as A Slow City is elaborated throughout the project proposal, collecting three ‘scenarios’41 of what if-s?
1- “What if water defines growth?” is about giving more territory to the land itself instead of new buildings, which is the first conceptual step into the strategy of A Slow City.
2- “What if a tram revives the city?” as the second design scenario, means that a new rail will be given to people, providing a public transport network of trams and bike lanes, moving from the center towards the city edges, connecting and inhabiting diverse clusters of public spaces.
3- “What if the edges gain a new identity?” seeks to transform city peripheries into new sustainable community spaces, and conveys alternative possibilities of circular economy, commercialism, and social awareness regarding environmental justice.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
Since the project jumps from scale to scale, it factors many significant levels of sustainability and life quality in commercial-led cities, like cities in Western Balkans and not just Kosovo. These cities are experiencing rapid urban development and are co-depended on the idea of “speed” as subconsciously the main idea of urban vision in order to follow a sort of "Europeanization". But the development that's happening is very much car-focused and as such, occurs on a rapid timetable, separates land uses, creates infrastructural chaos, and devalues the concept of a sustainable, compact, and “walkable” city.
One of the project key objectives is social awareness towards sustainability, environmental justice, heritage, connection with nature and natural based solutions. Through multi-scalar research and design, the project aims to make the city more people-friendly, bike-friendly, it provides opportunities for employment through production and food processing economy, and it encourages people to walk or use public transport rather than individual cars, be closer to nature, water and agriculture, as well as appreciate the slow-food ideology as an important income for circular economy.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
In terms of inclusion, the project tends to consider many factors that are significant for a city. Especially when it comes to social values, community needs, accessibility, social integration, design for all principles. For example, design for all principles are followed when designing new buildings, regenerating new landscapes and designing public spaces in the city which are equipped with elevators (in buildings), ramps (in landscape & urban design), and green spaces for recreation and rest (in sports and agricultural districts). On the other hand, accessibility and affordability of this initiative is very reachable since the project is in accordance with the governing systems and municipality strategic plans for the future of Ferizaj and its region.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the initiative and civil society have been/will be involved in the initiative and what has been/will be the impact of this involvement on the initiative
Citizens of Ferizaj will be given their city back. They will have more open spaces, more remote-working possibilities, more green spaces, new proper sport facilities, a new architectural design concept of living together, will focus on preserving important heritage elements instead of destroying them, will have many new businesses, a considerate economy boost by food production, processing factories, and more importantly a circular economy based on local products, heritage and sustainability.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
During the research phase of the project, important local stakeholders were involved as well as academic professors from Italy were advised, during the whole initiative. This includes a series of interviews with the Director of Urbanism and Environment Department in the Municipality of Ferizaj, informative meeting with the cabinet of experts from the Municipality, a lot of interviews with citizens of Ferizaj from different age groups.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your initiative. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
Coming from a multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary research-based design, various scopes of fields were involved in the process. Many research papers and interviews with experts were conducted in order to gain a realistic model of the context and its challenges. There are 4 research dimensions that are intersected with one another, simplified as: Infrastructure, Built Environment, Economy, Landscape and Water. Within all these dimensions, specific investigations were followed with many stakeholders involved which helped the design process towards new strategic thinking of 3 scenarios that would solve the problems related to these dimensions. For instance, studying the relation between water, landscape and economy resulted in a paradigm of 'lack of water & deforestation' caused by the economic development and large investments in wood industry, which ironically is the leading industry of Ferizaj. Hence the project tends to strengthen existing industries by following a sustainable approach of providing resources differently and parallelly create more public spaces for influencing social integration with nature.

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
The innovative character, I believe is the process and methodology area of research by design and design by research. Speaking in terms of educational purposes, this project does not really follow traditional ways of city planning or a linear approach of doing things in order. It rather jumps into an on-going design that goes back and forth to research and vice-versa, through "think globally, act locally" sort of thinking, or better explained "imagine 1:10000 scale, design 1:5 scale".

Please describe which elements of your initiative could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts. This may involve, for example, aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings, etc.
The process of this project can undoubtedly be used in any city planning initiative, any urban planning process, or any design-based project really. However, the strategic solutions, can be easily replicated or transferred to similar contexts, meaning cities that are experiencing rapid urban growth, like cities in the Western Balkans or Balkans in general.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
Research by Design - a methodology that addresses the project both as a research topic – in its conceptual, cultural and technical foundations – and as a form of research in its whole. It is highly relied on a multi-scalar layered analysis and hypothetical proposals to tackle respective research questions.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
Some of the global challenges this initiative addresses are Climate Change and Environmental Justice, Lack of Water, Food Insecurity, Unemployment, Mental health, and other Social Issues.
These challenges are addressed through many interventions within the city of Ferizaj, in an urban-landscape scale, infrastructure and building scales. Starting with 1-Sustainable mobility (proposing public transport of tramways within the city to reduce the usage of cars); 2- Bioswales and Rain Gardens (proposing NBS in public roads, parking areas, boulevards and building roofs); 3- Circular Economy (proposing an experimental 'city-village' at the peripheries of the city where new housing units, community gardens, new food processing factories and zero-km restaurant are designed reusing local traditions and cultivations); 4- Solar Panels (are designed within all respective buildings); 5- Biodiversity (newly designed public spaces in the city, wetland landscapes, productive landscapes, parks and so on, all connected to the nearby forests at the city peripheries); 6- Remote working cabins ( prefab microarchitecture placed within the newly designed wetland landscape, to accommodate people who need spaces to work, meet or study).

Please detail the scope of progress in the implementation of the initiative. This can include already demonstrated results/outputs related to the chosen Prizes category, and the already achieved benefits from the initiative for direct and indirect beneficiaries. This can also include a development plan of the initiative, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application, and including envisaged results and benefits from the initiative
Since this initiative is actually a Master Thesis project supervised by prof Matteo Motti, it was first presented at one of the Politecnico di Milano campuses in Italy. The professional committee discussed and evaluated the project with the highest grade of Italian grading system: 110/110 con lode (Latin honors).
Later, the project was presented to the municipality of Ferizaj, Department of Urbanism and Environment. They lack currently lack funding, but they discussed the possibility of considering this project within the future municipality plans for the city of Ferizaj.
Recently, I was invited to present this project for the Landscapes of Repair Exhibition in Kosovo, organized by ForumZFD, which aims to open debates on Western Balkans past and present challenges from different fields and topics.

Please provide documents that demonstrate the maturity level of the initiative and commitment to implement the initiative in practice (e.g.: evaluation report, final or mid-term initiative report, certification, publications, building permit, grant agreement, letter of support, partnership agreement, etc.)
Both
PDF
- pdf-1-4061.pdf
- pdf-1-4061_0.pdf
Web link
- https://issuu.com/diellezatahiri/docs/aslowcity_diellezatahiri
- https://www.politesi.polimi.it/handle/10589/190642
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
This initiative shows new possibilities for cities of Western Balkans or even European cities that are experiencing fast development in this era of globalization and capitalist economy which may be regarded as slowly damaging some important values of society. Living together with nature is a topic often implied by some experimental proposals in this research project. While this initiative is simply educational and research based on design, it still tackles a lot of issues and ideas regarding the contemporary city concept, within the European competence framework on sustainability.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images or visual representations of your initiative to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below.
- CV - DiellezaTahiri.pdf
- Laurea Magistrale - Dielleza Tahiri.pdf
By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed initiative has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the initiative and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their initiatives, initiative, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted initiative, initiative is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes