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Development Cooperation: a bridge between Italy and Albania

A research carried out by the Department of Architecture and the Florence Accessibility Lab

Emigration is an endemic plague in Albania. The main expense is borne by rural areas, where villages are depopulated, the resident population is ageing, the tightness of social networks is deteriorating, the territory is increasingly being abandoned. The ‘Country of Eagles’, which even has a Ministry for the Diaspora, has been trying for years to create a bridge with the Albanian emigrants, offering them opportunities to contribute to the development of their home country, transferring part of the acquired knowledge and skills to it for a longer period.

This is the context of a research carried out by the Department of Architecture and the Florence Accessibility Lab, the inter-departmental research unit of the University that studies accessibility to cultural heritage as a resource for human development.
From May 2019 to July 2020, the research project “The Diaspora as a Resource for the Knowledge, Preservation and Enhancement of the Lesser known Cultural Sites in Albania” set itself the objective of formulating a model of intervention for the sustainable tourist development of five Albanian villages, starting from the cultural heritage.
We talk about this with the scientific research manager, Antonio Laurìa, professor of technology of architecture and coordinator of the Florence Accessibility Lab, who led the team together with Leonardo Chiesi, Pietro Matracchi and Ugo Tonietti.

How did the research project come about?

In the fall of 2018, we won a call from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations’ Migration Agency. The project, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in Tirana, took place within the framework of the program of the Albanian Government “Engage the Albanian Diaspora to the Social and Economic Development of Albania”, involving three ministries, and in close relationship with the Italian Embassy in Tirana. But the special interest of the research is another.

Which one?

It was a research training experience for those who took part in it: students, young professionals and researchers from the Albanian diaspora who have trained in our University and who, thanks to the guidance of unifi academic staff, have transferred to their country the skills acquired in Italy in the field of knowledge, protection, and enhancement of cultural heritage. They worked together with students of architecture from the Catholic University “our Lady of the Good Counsel” in Tirana and young Italian researchers.

How did the project develop?

Part of the research was carried out in Albania, in the villages selected as study cases: the presence of people of Albanian mother tongue was fundamental to interview the inhabitants, to reconstruct traditions, to rediscover cultural riches. Some of the participants had had a difficult relationship with the country of origin: this experience was also an opportunity to make peace with their own history, with their own personal events. A surprising result, which struck me deeply.

The strong-point of your project is to use culture as vector of sustainable development…

Yes, both material and intangible culture. On the one hand, a beautiful landscape, the small buildings and the monuments that dialogue with nature; on the other, the handicraft and food traditions, a simple and authentic lifestyle based on the concept of hospitality toward foreigners. For the five villages we studied – Bënjë, Kosinë and Lëuse, in the municipality of Përmet; Zvërnec, a coastal village in the municipality of Valona; Razëm, a mountain village at the foot of the Albanian Alps – we have developed guidelines and projects to start sustainable tourism with the involvement of local communities, which need to become aware of their cultural heritage.
The contents of the research have been included in the book published by the Firenze University Press “Five Albanian villages. Guidelines for a sustainable tourism development through the enhancement of the cultural heritage”. I wrote it together with Kamela Guza and Valbona Flora, talented female researchers and members of the Albanian diaspora in Italy, but it is the result of a great collective work.

The research has also been well received in Albania.

Yes. The project included several phases and opportunities for dissemination. I only recall here the seminar held in Përmet in the spring of last year, aimed at the survey of three cultural assets by laser scanners and photogrammetry. The work carried out by the students was presented in Tirana last December as part of the exhibition “Through the eyes of Diaspora”, attended by the President of the Republic Ilir Meta, the Prime Minister Edi Rama, the Minister for the Diaspora Pandelj Maiko and other authorities.

Publication
date
04 February 2021
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