Spatial Transformation of the Waterfront

This work presents the spatial transformations on the waterfront of Durres, a port city in Albania, within a predefined timeframe:before, during and after socialism. The main concern of the research is the examination of the impact of political, social and economic actors, as well as morphological and geographic conditions in transforming the urban space and environment. The aim of the study is to understand how space was (re)produced, used and transformed in three different and consecutive systems and the relations set among actors involved in these process. While making a descriptive and comparative spatial analysis, the physical & programmatic elements of the waterfront constitute essential tools of examination. Along with the information on space production process inherent of three political systems, concentrating the attention on the waterfront as an important element of the urban structure; this work brings some understanding on subjects related to the actual spatial transformations occurring in the city and it social space. Finally, by affirming the waterfront as an edge condition, the notion of ‘edge’ and its meaning in the socialist and post-socialist city is elaborated.