Following the war Prishtina has undergone massive change, with the population doubling in just the first five years after 1999. The once organized and spatial city (I have heard) became a cluster fuck of new development with no rules or regulation preventing rampant growth. Everyone is an architect in this place, with people pumping money into simple, ugly structures that lay vacant and plague the pedestrian experience and will continue to do so for many years to come. Please, I beg you, leave the design and construction of buildings to the professionals. I guess in Kosovo, that means anyone with money enough to buy a degree or anyone who has a relative or friend in the business. The concept of “professional practice” does not seem to be understood yet, and that is expected of the “oldest people” in Europe with the youngest exposure to the rest of the world. 

I want to use this opportunity to share an outsider’s opinion with my newly adopted people. I want to give you a glimpse of what I find inspiring and also what I find repugnant about the built environment of Prishtina.

1. Interior Design: GOOD

Architects in Kosovo understand and execute interior architecture very well. Time spent in bars and cafes dominates over time spend outdoors making the interior experience more valued. Hamam Bar is the best interior space I have experienced in the city of Prishtina. I was lucky enough to stumble down the steps this past weekend and witness the best of Kosovo interior design. Unfinished concrete walls, air pockets highlighting the texture in contrast with the polished leather furniture and mud covered ceiling tiles is a beautiful combination that will not be forgotten. Green climbing plants stretching over the concrete walls and some very good jazz music creates a place that is quite memorable.

2. Reflective Glass in Awful Colors: BAD

One of the most common architectural aspects of the city are these blank, ugly curtain wall systems that only work in the sense that “sometimes,” they reflect something of meaning. These planes of glass are placeless, futile attempts at making a distinguishable architecture. In all actuality they create a visual complexity that complicates and eliminates all identity of the place they are trying to define.

3. Mixing the Old With the New: GOOD

Some people are truly doing a great job and I must commend those who are being modest and designing re-use architecture. Mixing historic structures with modern touches is a very interesting and viable option that needs to be better understood. There is an idea out there called sustainable design. You do not have to completely destroy a building to arrive at desirable architecture. Materials and buildings need to be recycled and repurposed with new programs bringing new functions to unused space. Creating architecture that has ties to history through material and program is one thing, but trying to replicate architectural ideals from a time past, is dangerous.

4. Communist Architecture Built Today: BAD

Bold strong architecture signifying strength and power is outdated. It is a testament to the history of modern architecture in the Balkans, but the scale and effect on experiential qualities is detrimental to society. The Prishtina Arena/Shopping center behind the “New Born” sign is an example of what I mean. It represents a brutalism architecture that is a style and should be respected but not replicated. Modern buildings going up in Prishtina like the new Ministry of Education building are really disappointing because they show that people here are stuck in the past. Ok, maybe not all people, just those designing new Government buildings.

Architects! Please move forward and think about your future which is directly impacted by the built environment you create. It is time for new ideas; check out Bjark Ingles to see what I mean.

The article was originally written in English.

Photo credit: James W. Stodgel

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