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Albania

Every day, for three hours, street musicians take over parts of Skanderbeg Square, the main plaza of Albania’s capital city. They appropriate Tirana’s iconic free-use green chairs to position themselves as part of the urban landscape and engage through music in a spontaneous process of placemaking. This film follows a day in the life of a group of local performers.

USA

The assumption that all people are able to actualize the rights, benefits, and responsibilities of citizenship within the built environment is misleading. African Americans’ ownership of property and use of public space for personal enjoyment has been historically perceived as transgressive behavior, and often met with punitive legal action, violence, and, at times, death. Given this context, the ability of African Americans to successfully navigate and shape the physical spaces within their lives has amounted to de facto survival strategies. Addressing this fraught social-spatial condition and its impact at the scale of the citizen, Thrival Geographies (In My Mind I See a Line), an intervention in the courtyard of the US Pavilion, is rooted in the historical spatial practices of African Americans, yet speculates upon new spatial strategies that support the most precarious of populations. We foreground these practices as manifestations of civic agency and freedom that move all citizens beyond mere survival toward thrival and full participation in the democratic ideal.

Albania

The architect without qualities is a personal story about the controversies of contemporary architectural practices –especially the ones working on an international level– and the clash of their activities with an architect’s personal ethical values. The author reports its own experience of working on a massive masterplan development in Tirana and seeing the subsequent real-estate development. The experience brought him to question his role in the construction industry and more in general the role of the contemporary architects in the wellbeing of the citizens. Through an exploration of its own project the author tries to shift from a tormented egocentric intellectual posture to one based on listening and direct contacts with the others.

Germany

The invasive reed plant typha, growing in large abundance at the Sénégal river, could be one of the most radical and innovative building materials in Africa. Because of his great insulation properties it is mixed into BTC's, compressed earth bricks. Architects, activists and entrepreneurs explore the possibilities of typha and the larger idea of plant supported architecture in this particular region.

Azerbaijan

The film addresses various challenges that could be faced particularly by pedestrians, people with disabilities, and women* regarding public transport, the exclusive infrastructure of roads and public spaces, and the design of underground passages. Around a round table, young people discuss their stories regarding the confusing and challenging urban experiences where lack and sometimes the abundance of unreasonable passages makes life easier for cars, yet so tough for the citizens. Further, the dysfunctioning "Top-up" points for accessing public transport are also reflected in the film. Most of the public transport in Baku could be accessed through the "Baku card" payment, whereas most bus stops are underequipped with the machines to top the cards or they are not properly functioning. The situation puts many people in a helpless situation when they try to hop on quickly to the coming bus, but also there is a sweet culture of asking others on the bus to pay for them in return for small cash. Last, the unsafe reality of Baku's streets for women and the lack of inclusion regarding people with disabilities are shortly reflected in the film.

Albania

This hidden place is enclosed by skyscrapers and the continuous transformations of Tirana. We had the honour of being part of Dashira’s daily routine for a week. Her Gjelltore became for us a way to explore the identity of the neighbourhood: the needs, the hopes and the preoccupations of its citizens. Her dedication to keeping this place open to serve workers, passersby and old acquaintances restores a precise sense of belonging against the fast pace of the city. Every day, tiny spontaneous gestures of care turn this small canteen into a gentle place of resistance. We learned from Dashira’s Gjelltore how to grasp the mechanism of relationships and place-making. This is a shared space, where you are able to count on a warm meal, a point of reference open seven days a week: in one word a recipe for community building. Gjelltor-ism is our method to interact with the urban environment - a new tool to trigger alternative futures for sensible city planning.