Small and Big Ring, Skopje. Genealogies of Public Space

What can architects do to contribute to the transformation of urban space in contemporary South-Eastern Europe? What agency do they possess, and how can they wield it? What urban agenda can we conceive using the tools of architectural design within the entanglement of institutional practices, material modifications, economic and bureaucratic constraints, and civic mobilizations? This book is the outcome of an international research project involving extensive field work across Belgrade, Podgorica, Skopje and Tirana. Over two years, the team travelled between Turin and the four capitals to investigate the inner workings of specific sites, captured within the folds of their continuous becoming and the routines of countless actors. From small-scale interventions, maintenance and repair, the daily practices of inhabitants, neighbourhood meetings, but also administrative functions of public offices, real estate transactions, and property speculation:, the book unpacks these and other phenomena through analytical texts and a rich visual apparatus of archival images, photographs, maps and diagrams.