Archis announces two publications:
Prishtina is Everywhere: Turbo Urbanism: the Aftermath of a Crisis
By Kai Vöckler
Volume 17: Content Management
The C-Lab certified edition
www.archis.org
www.volumeproject.org
Prishtina is Everywhere
After NATO-led KFOR troops ended civil war in Kosovo (1999), an instant building boom changed the capital Prishtina dramatically. Within a few years its population doubled, partly as a consequence of an influx of returning refugees. Local investors profited, creating quick returns on ‘hit and run’ projects. On the fringes of the city ‘maverick urbanism’ had a different face: family clans invested family capital in large houses, built on farmland. The result was a random spread and development of the city, causing serious functional and structural problems for the future.
Prishtina is Everywhere describes, maps and analyzes the situation in Prishtina after 1999, documents problem-solving strategies, and discusses the significance of this kind of urban development for the way urban life evolves in crisis zones. The title hints at two phenomena: firstly, urban development of this type is typical for many post-conflict situations, and secondly, most of the construction in Prishtina has been financed by remittances from family members working abroad (one-fifth of Kosovo’s entire population lives abroad, specifically in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria).
This is the first of a series of investigations of urban development in post-conflict areas, initiated by Archis Interventions.
With contributions of Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Caroline Arnulf, Thilo Fuchs, Wilfried Hackenbroich, Irmgard Zerr, Florina Jerliu, Visar Geci, Ilir Gjinolli, Lilet Breddels, Arjen Oosterman.
224 p., 17×24 cm, 96 pages in color. Design Heimann und Schwantes, printed in Germany.
The English edition is published by Archis Publishers, Amsterdam: 978-90-77966-50-1
The German edition appears at Parthas Verlag, Berlin, 978-3-86601-904-1
Volume 17: Content Management
Similar to online management (music, films, services) architecture is designed to have a public surface and a protected interior, to encourage visitors and at the same time limit the use of the property inside, to provide problem-free navigation yet direct and track visitor movement, and to mark out what content is accessible and what isn’t.
Interviews with Julien De Smedt, Lars Müller, Ken Goldberg, Chris Anderson, Rachel Maddow, Arianna Huffington, Nadia Abu El-Haj, Marc Simmons, Michael Govan, AOC, Iñaki Ábalos, and Philippe de Montebello.
Contributions by: Mark Wigley, Rene Daalder, Shumon Basar, Arjen Oosterman, Joseph Grima, Oliver Domeisen, Ari Marcopoulos and Greg Lynn.
Special features:
C-Lab on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and UNESCO’s World Heritage program.
Extra:
The Politics of the Envelope. In an extensive essay Alejandro Zaera Polo formulates ‘a political critique of materialism’, analyzing the past 40 years of the envelope as content management.
Volume 17: 160 p., ISSN 1574-9401 / ISBN 978-90-77966-17-4
Design Irma Boom & Sonja Haller, printed in Belgium.
Volume, independent quarterly for architecture to go beyond itself
Volume is a project by Archis + AMO + C-Lab + …
Volume is published by Archis Foundation, Amsterdam
