growthPatterns ofthe city of skopiecapital of macedonla

Tutors: Marija Mano Velevska, Slobodan Velevski, Ognen Marina and Klaske Maria Havik.

Assistents: Milka Dokuzova, Gordan Vitevski and Agnieszka Batkiewicz.

Skopje studio: Patterns of growth.

Delft studio: Trandisciplinary encounters.

Date: Fall semester 2014.

Students: Nikola Gjorgievski, Lina Dimitrovska, Marija Dojcinovska, Anastasija Spasovska, Natasa Vckova, Dushko Kuzmanov, Natalija Zafiroska, Bisera Krckovska, Marija Radevska, Filip Vitanov, Arian Fetahu, Marija Maliminovska, Emilija Joveska, Ivona Miteva,

Marijana Nikolovska, Jorde Sazdovska, Emilija Lelifanovska, Bojan Stojanovski, Natasa Azmanova, Tijana Misevska, Mania Bién, Seline Wijker, Roely Rijpkema, Darlene Tsai, Wessel Steenhuis and Christian Sluijmer.

6

7

IndexIndexIntroduction

Aerodromby: Anastasija Spasovska, Natasa Vckova and Dushko Kuzmanov

Kisela voda & Rasadnikby: Marija Maliminovska and Emilija Joveska

Transport centerby: Ivona Miteva, Marijana Nikolovska, Jorde Sazdovska and Emilija Lelifanovska

Bunjakovec & Debar Maaloby: Nikola Gjorgievski, Lina Dimitrovska and Marija Dojcinovska

Cair by: Natalija Zafiroska and Bisera Krckovska

Taftalidzeby: Marija Radevska, Filip Vitanov and Arian Fetahu

Hromby: Bojan Stojanovski, Natasa Azmanova and Tijana Misevska

08

10

14

18

22

26

30

34

8

Taftalidje

Urban Area 225 km2

Studio project Skopje 2014: Patterns of Growth 7 x 1,2km2

ChairDebar maalo + Bunjakovec

Hrom

Aerodrom

Kisela Voda

Transporten centar

Aerodrom

SKOPJE

9

IntroductionThe studio Skopje 2014: Patterns of Growth aims to acknowledge the transformative specifics of the urban conditions facing continuous quantitative changes, on the case of the city of Skopje. The focus is set on the phenomenon of growth in terms of size, volume and density, seen through the dichotomy between the city fragment and the city as a whole. The studio research explores public, private and collective domain of the city by identifying the socio-spatial dynamics of existing build space, urban voids and distributive networks of the city. Studio work refers on typo-morphological and programmatic investigations of specific parts of the city. The testing ground of the studio starts with territorial analysis of 1.2km2 and continuous with in-depth analysis of 500x500m cut-outs of urban areas. Those explorations provide the data base of actual transformative dynamics happening in different parts of Skopje and open possibilities for architectural interventions. Using this data input, spatial models resembling different patterns of possible growth were developed and tested for each of the specific sites. Studio encouraged polemical design proposals that follow narratives and scenarios for ‘spatial imagination’ of contemporary city. The outcome is an architectural object that reflects autonomous strategy for the city building. Finally, the proposed projects articulate the issue of spatial artifact as operational territory and polemical vision for the growth of the contemporary city.

10

(image)

Updated map 2.

Аеродром

11

Our research is focused on a 1.2x1.2 kilometer city cutout that is Aerodrom, a neighbourhood in the east part of Skopje. Built in the ’70 during a socialist inclination, in line with the political, economical and social climate, the morphology of this new neighborhood provided more open and public spaces. People with different backgrounds and social statuses lived as one community, creating a sense of demographic horizontality and collectiveness.

In the current fragment we can distinguish three main structural elements: clear defining axes, compact clusters of built space that exist as strong socio-spatial entities, little neighborhoods and a vast semi-organized void.We used the dominant spatial axes and the axes that occur by the usage of the built environment as tools to decode this piece of city and to develope a new concept for growth and collectivity. In this fourtresslike cluster formaton we posed the spatial questions of the void and the dimension questions of how far is too far? How do we articulate the polemic void? Using taxonomy we defined positive negatives- voids that are well defined and used, representing the collective back yard; critical voids - placed in between the clusters and are in need of defining; negative negatives – voids with unhuman scale where you can’t relate to the context and tampon

voids – voids/rings that are used as bariers between the busy crowded outline of the streets and the compact clusters. This fenomena of an amorph, undefined, oversized void defined by negative negatives is our focus for a posiible intervention, something that would devide the vast space into logical fragments without compromising fluctuation. The new artefact that would emerge should be defining but not limiting, it should crate new social clusters around itself and conect with the existing structure.

We propose a linear structure with a north-south disposition placed on different intervals serving as void definers and links. With the intention of maintaining the character of the Aerodrom, we propose growth of the existing structures on the vertical axis so that the green spaces would be left open and the footprint would remain the same. The accent is put on the void, with intention to activate its surface. The structures on the periffery of the blocks would rise 4 floors, creating more housing space so that the neighbourhood can meet the future need for growth. As for the void, we reconize it as a quality space and we want to preserve and emphasize its character. To do so, we define the void in a 45m wide frame and fisicaly separate it by with 1.2 meters high concrete walls. In this zone we place 5 different object that reflect archetypical

AerodromCollective monuments: socialism re-invented into capitalism

12

architectonic elements. They should divide the void into 5 different zones of influences. These structures are meant to create vistas and atmosferes -they are the only thing that would be man made in this stripe of wilderness-the vegetation would be left to grow freely and invade the space around. The new buildings have a mixed use programme, for activities that reflect collectivness-ateliers, student accomodation, concert hall, sport center,pool, market etc. This stripe framed by the towers on one side and a gate on the other should represent an urban wilderness that evokes a fair of expiriences for the one that crosses it.

Plan and section.

13

Supernow 2.

14

(image)

Updated map 5.

15

During our site survey we were confronted with the different types of urban structures in the existing situation of Kisela Voda: single family houses, housing blocks, industrial zones. In relation to urban morphology the dominant unconstructed area can be clearly seen. Two structural characteristics are outstanding: the empty space as structure element which detaches itself with its dominance and vividly noticeable axes.The importance in relation to this location is the identification of the empty space as a spatial value which is of particular importance. It is not about an empty and deserted area, but it is about a range of endemic trees which is important to be protected. Such urban, unconstructed area is as vital for the city as its urban structure. We were faced by an urban landscape as part of the urban tissue. Our main trigger was: how to preserve the beauty of the empty space? How to protect it from disappearaning and the intrusion of the urban tissue? Our research focuses on exploring the void, the nature of the space and defining the character of the edges. As result of the research we concluded that the edge of the void is different and in some places it is clear and defined, and in others transparent and permeable. Refering to

the tissue around the space it is a different kind of urban structure and the existing buildings and areas were not always closed towards the void. Our consideration in regard to the new intervention on this location was defining a concept with which the void would be protected from disappearance, would satisfy the needs for growth and at the same time would transform the void into collective space connecting the different urban structures around it. Our main goal was to protect the void and combine the urban structures with the natural elements.The new conceptual solution represents a gesture which surrounds the trees as a boundary which protects the empty space and widens it towards north and connects to the railway through the boulevard. The program comprises housing in towers, laboratories with temporary housing in the part oriented to the trees, administration with commercial contents and temporary housing oriented towards the boulevard, and a railway station opposite the boulevard.Social aspects were very important for the development of our project. With this program the aspect of growth is met and by this the further destruction of the empty space is stopped, and the space is transformed into a new, modern urban collective area making it a better place for quality living.

Kisela Voda-RasadnikThe fragile beauty of the void:collective reloaded

16

Site plan.GSPublisherEngine 0.0.100.100

С И Т У А Ц И Ј АМ = 1 : 1 0 0 0

17

Supernow 5.

Kisela Voda

41°58'26.60"N 21°27'5.62"Emap 10 _ imagination map

GSPublisherEngine 0.0.100.100

THEH

OME

THE FORTRESS

THE

SECRET

THE VILLAGE

STRICT

INC M

PL T

E

CLOSED SOLID

passive

MIXED

ACT

IVE

U .N

D e

F I

N

E d

O P E N

DEFINED

CLOSEDDEFINED

THE MACHINE

Kisela Voda

41°58'26.60"N 21°27'5.62"Emap 10 _ imagination map

18

(image)

Updated map 4.

Транспортен Центар

19

The location of our intervention is Transport Center located in the center of Skopje, Macedonia.This location is characterized by huge frequency based on the reference points on this site like huge shopping mall, the main bank of the city, National Television, bank of the river Vardar and the Transport center itself.Analyzing this site of the city of Skopje, we defined colossal fragmentation according to the typo morphological features. The site of Madzir maalo is clarified as a cluster of traditional old houses from 1890, then neighborhood of Prolet as linear structure dated from 50s, the massive megastructure of the Transport Center as leftover from the plan of Skopje made by the famous architect Kenzo Tane after the earthquake in Skopje in 1963. According to all this we can define this fragment of the city as a “patchwork” of different spatial atrtefacts with substantialy differences between them in relation to their characteristics and communication who are affecting on our using of the space. As dominant artefact is the Transport Center who has the most extensive influence in fastening the different fragments among themselves and in the same time is the fundamental traffic link in the city. Through this link we can define the users of this area, their movement and programe purpose as elementary for this scope.After analysig the existing situation the conclusion was that in the last few years we

noticed the increased population and users of the space, increased weighing and pedestrian traffic affecting on expanding of the building (for example houses transformed in housing block) and redefining correspondence between the build and unbuild areas, between public and private space (for example, the private space is transformed in public space corresponding to the needs of the inhabitants).The Patterns of growth firstly we are definding by adding above ground boulevard on the same position of the existing bl. Krusevska Republika. By raising the boulevar above ground we connect the opposite parts of the city of Skopje and in the same time not devastating the existing fragments. The free space under the boulevard now can be used to create collective spaces disperse in horizontal. Secondly, we add 11 high raise buildings with different program dispersing in vertical: housing, administrative and hotels. With this intervention we are solving the problem of housing, we adding hotels because of the closeness of the main bus and rail station and administrative buildings because this location is favorable for this type of program. With our project we are producing Linear City which is connecting different fragments and in the same time the new boulevard, the Transport Centar and the space between are creating the “City Gate”, the metaphorical concept started by Kenzo Tange.

Transport Center The collective space of infrastructures:fragments and continuity

20

Site plan.

21

Supernow 4.

22

(image)

Updated map1.

Буњаковец + Дебар Маало

23

Location

The project is located in Bunjakovec and Debar Maalo – a quarter in the heart of central Skopje, peculiar for its ever growingcharacter. Concept

To preserve the personality of the neighbourhood whilst understanding the field conditions, originated a new relationship between the community and the city, opaquely known and highly questionable. One that is highly syntactic in terms of morphology and has decreased semiotic value. Consequently, the question of neglected collectivity was raised. In order to answer this question, perusing the formal character of the neighbourhood was greatly necessary. A narrative method where buildings became persons, predominately defined by one major attribute such as boring or explicit, helped read the social cliques of buildings and their relations within block structures of the city segment. Therefore, the absence of a quality communication, programmatic

and formal, became the new priority. How to connect them and achieve a general impact? A stripe was created, a line that can unify the blocks, informal on the ground and formal at the top. A normed arrangement, as schematic as it is flexible, tangentially touching the rims of the blocks, capable of cohabiting the local collectivity and exciding the expectations of the city growth. The stripe’s pillars became the new residential buildings which replaced the old and depressed members. They also became its solely links from the ground. The new longitudinal vector will bring back the collective spirit of the neighbourhood, as it is designed with local and social interactive programs, specific for this part of the city. “The city above city” became the solution, where such stripe cannot take place on the ground but its existence is crucial for the quality of the city centre domestic areas. This design methodology is proposed for several areas of the city centre, as it is believed to be the answer for the drop of residential quality and a way to bring collectivity back in different manors for future city designs and developments.

Bunjakovec -Debar Maalo The patterns of collective space in the speculative realm of the supernow

24

Imagination map.

Bunjakovec + Debar Maalo

41°99'96.28"N 21°42'08.48"Emap 10 _ imagination map

Bunjakovec + Debar Maalo

41°99'96.28"N 21°42'08.48"Emap 10 _ imagination map

25

Supernow 1.

26

(image)

Updated map 3.

Чаир

27

Densely built and impermeable, the district of Chair is highly enclosed where only its periphery communicates with the rest of the city. Despite the suffering of the ethnic, social and of course morphological changes in the neighborhood, which is one of the oldest in the city of Skopje, it still keeps the organic morphology in the horizontal plan. The suffered changes reflected on the physical reality and the structures which are part of the inhabitant’s everyday life. In this very neighborhood the wall is the major structural element, and the street is only remnant of what is left like a unassigned space. The street separates the public from the private space.The street is the only thing that you can get as a accidental passerby.The first role of the border is to separate, enclose and define within a micro level where the ownership, privacy and affiliations are strictly respected. In a morphology where the parcel is the main building unit all of the physical changes are influenced by the factor of ownership. Every little piece is a part of the bigger image composed of so many different fragments, that when we look on it as a complete whole it gives a full field where everything is the same and very similar to each other. The surface where the growth is happening is not more than one parcel, and the need of the growth is dictated by the needs of not more than one family. In order to get more privacy which always goes proportionally with

the size of the built structure, the houses loose the quality of the yard which is nothing less than extension of the outdoor family life. The treatment of the yard depends on the disposition of the house and their mutual relation. The fact that the yard is not intrusive doesn’t mean that it’s not necessary. The activities that are performed in it, depend on the level of privacy the afford and as well as the disposition of the street and the house.The image of Chair never stops changing with every erased and over build land where the building is the main and the only user of the space, the boundaries walls are high and the empty spaces are fully tiled. The question is how to systemize all the differences and how to limit the freedom of building in this kind of specific context?The neighborhood like a whole is homogeneous field, where choosing some structural reference as a model of further development is a difficult task.On this piece of the city we consider the social links like a family relations, and what is recognized like a collectiveness is nothing more but family. In that meaning, we took the places that have the highest level of private collectiveness. In physical and special manner we recognize this phenomena as a piece made of a several parcels. In this kind of cluster the owners of the houses are in relative connections. Despite the house and the yard, the street brings very important role in the story. In this

CairImploding boundaries or the meaning of private collectiveness

28

case, the street is not only a street, but it’s also an extended yard which is enclosed with a door named “kapidzik”.We choose one of these granulations that exist to proceed several steps that are based on the way the people use their place. The new project will be a possible role model of the further growth.First, we keep the dispositions of the houses which means that they snap on the very periphery of the external border. With this step we make a free space in front of the houses. This kind of a front yard together with the street makes a big open and flexible free zone.The second level occupies smaller area then the first level. Through this step, the people that live on the second floor can easily use the roof of the lower level in a way that they will satisfy their need of open space.The third step is about to limit the growth, the vertical development is compressed in towers. Furthermore, in a manner to keep the open buffer spaces even in the towers, there is a possibility to make an cantilevered extension of the slabs. The ground floor of the towers maintain like a open like a porch which allows the yard to run feely trough the buildings.Even though our focus is the topic of inhabiting the empty space, it is equally important to keep the image of the neighborhood. To achieve this goal we keep control on the volumes in the first levels, which retain the human scale character of the place, without limiting the vertical growth.

29

Imagination map.

30

(image)

Updated map 6.

Тафталиџе

31

On one piece of city with dimensions 1,2 X 1,2 km2 we note three different morphological neighborhoods : Karposh 4, Taftalidje and Kozle.One of the common characteristics of these three neighborhoods is the large urban growth at the expense of collective spaces and the urban greenery.Analyzing the neighborhood, appears and the question how to protect the collective space and the spirit of Taftalidje through improving the quality of the space. Answer of this question was the marking of these spaces and creating a catalog of functions that will be placed in the so called ‘’rooms’’.So setting the ‘’rooms’’ whose functions would not be tied to a fixed location, where the creativity and the need will be connected will become main link to the preservation of the collective spirit and strong relationship between the neighborhood, thereby will raise the quality of life and controlled growth.

Most of the new architectural artifacts have a ‘’special’’ function that will make ‘’architectural volunteers-prisoners’’ and ‘’nomads’’ searching for new creativity and new form of inspiration to move through each forgotten corner of this territory.This strategy for preserving the collectivity of the neighborhood is defined by several different types of symbilisms as follows:

Architectural symbolism that define the locations of new collective spaces and location as a entirety island / catalogue / which define the remains or the celery of the islands and the mutual diversity of purposes and functions.

Operational tactical symbolism are frequency / transfer, they give new frequency that vibrates space at the same time connects the separated fragments of the neighborhood.Mental symbolisms are action – activity or free - which as nomadic experience the individuals will experience it.

Territorial symbolisms in between / section – new collective spaces that are found as points in between, will revive these parts with his sculptural expression, the variable program and activities in the area under the feelings that will become the new reference points and will attract new temporar users and the permanent residents will have ‘’rooms’’ in which they can express all their feelings and to show all the creativity.

TaftalidzeMetropolis in cut-outs: collective rooms

32

Imagination map.

33

Supernow 6.

34

(image)

Updated map 7.

Хром

35

This fragment of the city is a planned low height neighborhood characterized with individual housing - family houses with yards. Its quality is disturbed by the upcoming seizing growth: plots that were imposed on individual housing now turn into plots with collective housing, which creates a loss of the positive feature which this settlement is recognised by. The other issue is that although the river Vardar is a defining structural element it is not integrated in the settlement, therefor its inhabitants do not sense it as part of their mental map. Having in mind the issues of the neighborhood, the way people use the space, their habits, and the potential of the urban gaps in-between, we decided to intervene in the deserted space, “the wilderness”, as we named it. Our intention was to use this wasteland as a potential intervention site, so it would act as a connection of the established settlement and the river bank of Vardar. Above all this intervention is not to disturb the nature in this region, but to connect with the already existing structure, linking it through pedestrian paths that represent a continuation of the existing street network. At the end of each horizontal axis rises a vertical – blind wall of skyscraper with mostly collective housing and semi-public compatible content. The growth consists of precise repetition of the basic unit (skyscraper), and thus form the absolute border

of this fragment of the city. Five tall buildings are placed in the wasteland, each of has a length of 30m and width of 10m, while the height ranges from 50 to 100 meters. Secondary objective of the disposition to the set of the skyscrapers is not to obstruct the view to the Mountain Vodno, and also to create some illusion of horizontal to vertical crossing. In our advanced design of the project we predict a new traffic connection with an underground service street setting the intervention on the nature to a minimum and leaving the site as an “untouched” nature. The street is reinforced with program that is supposed to benefit the new settlement. Finally this intervention creates a new silhouette that unites the river and the settlement, representing the bound between nature and urban, behaving with great respect towards nature and the built structure with no threat to the existing qualities such as good insolation and view towards the mountains.

Hrom

Urban wasteland:the territory of the collective

36

Imagination map.

37

Supernow 7.

Хром