With its amazing food, its multitude of untouched nature and its rich ancient history Albania deserves a much broader public that comes to visit, than the 'off the beaten track tourist'. International tourism is a sector in constant development: More and more travellers are looking for authentic experiences which enrich them as individuals and also do something good for the country they are visiting.

Sustainable tourism can provide these experiences through unique learning experiences directly tied to a country's people and culture. Having this in mind the Dutch Embassy supported the cooperation of Cityförster with MVO Nederland and partners, to work on an inspiring concept for sustainable tourism in Albania, combining it with agriculture. The goal was to strengthen one destination by a multi-stakeholder approach to create a better place to live and visit. After comprehensive analyses Qeparo, an old village along the coastline of Albania has been chosen as a concrete area and in March 2016 a one-week workshop consisting of field visits, interviews with local entrepreneurs and design and business planning sessions with entrepreneurs on agriculture, hospitality, tourism services, urban planning and product design was organized. It resulted in potential projects, business cases and future scenarios for Qeparo. The project is currently being prepared for follow-up, up-scaling and replication.

You can find the online version of the report here.

What does sustainable urban development with a special focus on the sponge city principle in China look like?

The flagship project Sponge City Hefei relies entirely on decentralized drainage, which should lead to an answer to the flood problem and the extreme weather events that will become increasingly stronger in the future. Our focus was on the planned parks as central and profiling elements of the city, which will become the "green living room" of future residents.

With low-threshold and barrier-free access, the offers of the residential neighbourhoods are supplemented here and the informal meeting, which is so far untypical for China, is promoted. This is achieved through the targeted use of, for example, generous seat edges, freely movable furniture, and picnic areas.

With the aim of creating a metropolis with a low climatic footprint and a small impact on local ecosystems, four large parks with large unsealed areas are being created. The special sponge city principle provides for working with instead of against the water and implementing it as a characteristic element of Hefei. This helps the green-blue city to regulate the climate - especially in the very hot summer months. In addition to the climatic advantages mentioned, our argumentation of integrating the local river, which was originally supposed to be led around the city, creates a number of added values for Hefei.

The four emerging parks will each have their own characteristics, depending on the respective demarcation area. For example, the ground in the west with many adjoining office buildings serves primarily as a place to relax during work breaks on the one hand and as an extended conference room with options for flexible work on the other.

The project, besides providing spatial qualities and creating urban spaces that promote
social interaction in cultural life aims to serve as an innovative hydrological system to protect the city in the event of more extreme weather occurrences and to ensure sustainable urban development.

As a result of all the interlocking concepts, Hefei forms a richly linked city with different biotopes and parks that work together with the social infrastructure and create a high-quality living space for the new China.

Take a look at how we continued by planning the first park here.

Due to the planned coal phase-out by 2038 and thus the elimination of a complete industry with many jobs, strong visions of the future already need to be developed today. How can we reintegrate the gigantic areas that will soon be fallow again in a sustainable manner and make them usable?

Located in the border triangle, our workshop was about developing a vision for the area in and around Garzweiler. The main goal here was to move away from the current linear to a circular economy. The starting point of the concept was the question of how we can draw a strong vision of the place that addresses its complex issues: What does innovation need? What will energy production look like in the future? How can we restore the immensely damaged ecosystem and reconnect the fragmented biotope network? And what do the municipalities and residents of the region need? How can all these aspects be thought of in a cycle and thus map a strong, sustainable system?

To give answers to all of these questions, the concept provides for the creation of an innovation network from three well-developed commercial locations in Jüchen, Jackerath, and Frimmersdorf, which tie in with existing plans. The conversion of the Frimmersdorf power plant, which is otherwise to be demolished (planned paralysis in 2021), creates a supra-regional innovation hub and acts as a gateway to the region. Its huge pre-built areas serve as a playground for start-ups as well as established companies. The power plant is a visual reminder of the cultural heritage and the important past of the region, but on the other hand, shows the big step forward towards a sustainable future. The pioneering spirit that has prevailed for decades is being rethought and translated into 2035.

Large contiguous recultivation areas for industrial agriculture feed electricity into the local grid through additional use for wind power and PV systems. We are creating ecological corridors (forestry recultivated, natural green structures), which in the future will span between the lakeshore and the forests of the Erft floodplain and, in addition to safeguarding the species network, also represent interesting areas for tourism. Thus the economic situation of the region is strengthened. They are lined with laboratory areas: small-scale fields and garden structures on which circular agriculture is researched, tested, and applied.

Garzweiler is an attractive area, but how can villages be developed, and what offers need to be created? Resource-saving, water management, or new forms of mobility are just a selection of important topics and factors that need to be considered. We propose different lighthouse regions in which to settle. In this way, for example, the new town of Niers am See is created. With the inevitable flooding of the Garzweiler II opencast mine and the resulting lake the size of the Tegernsee, there is an extraordinary opportunity for the realization of a model city with decentralized rainwater management and close networking in the adjacent natural biotopes. As soon as the opencast mining is completed, the respective villages can grow to the edge of the former mine and then have their own waterfront promenades in the final state.

The concept is rounded off by a cableway that links the various areas.

'Holistic Uniqueness' proposes a future vision and a robust
development framework for Greater Helsinki, Finland. The
region is globally positioned as the interface between the EU and
Russia. A high-velocity train network links Helsinki to the Baltic
centres, Stockholm, Tallinn and St. Petersburg, establishing a
transnational connection.

The Greater Helsinki Region itself is defined as a configuration of eight core areas, each characterised
by a unique programmatic and spatial profile. Based on
the incorporation of global future developments (like energy
shortage, demographic change etc.) and existing local potentials,
the profiles act as concepts for sustainable development -
ensuring global competence and creating local identity at the
same time. A specific urban form and structure are proposed for
each area, strengthening the programmatic profile and creating
diverse relations between urban and green spaces. Within
this metropolitan configuration, each area will offer something
unique. Therefore they are linked not only by a sophisticated
transport system but more importantly by complementation of
each other.

The project is based on three aspects: 1. future megatrends, 2. strengthening a sustainable society via social equality, healthy environment, and qualitative economic growth, 3. participation along with reflective, visionary guidance as the basis for effective and flexible developments. High-velocity train and ferry connections will enhance the position of the Øresund Region as an interface between Central, Northern and Baltic Europe.

The development concept for the Øresund Region itself combines two main structures: the Metrosund, an association of nine cities encircling the Sund, and the Ørezones, nine sub-regional areas. Each Metrosund-City and Ørezone is given a unique profile based on existing characteristics and demands of the aforementioned megatrends, generating regional identity and global competence. Within the hinterland networks of SMESTOs (Small and MEdium sized TOwns) give a flavour of the local qualities. One key agency will guide the development process: Øresund Visionary Guidance, a multidisciplinary, independent, cross-border task force working closely with the people of the Øresund Region.

The opencast mine Garzweiler migrates within the region of Cologne / Mönchengladbach / Dusseldorf within decades. Highways are relocated, areas demolished, almost 8,000 people resettled. An abandoned area with no history is left behind. "New Energy" is a landscape in motion and consciously focuses on a development process starting now. The advancing open-cast mining is no longer intended to monofunctionally determine the space, but instead, through spatially and temporally projects, the landscape will develop in an attractive way in every phase.

"Capturing the hole" is the first development phase: this is not only about the development of the mining area and its staging as a fascination but also by a change of image of the region. In addition, a green-blue infrastructure is being developed, which, as the largest park in Europe, surrounds the opencast mining area. A cable car "overflows" the hole, makes it experienceable and re-connects suspended villages. After the end of the brown coal mining, large areas are free for settlement, landscape and commercial development: a space that will be characterized by an exciting topography with novel open-space structures.

In the beginning of May 2018 students and professionals from Albania and the Netherlands went on a trip to Nivica, exploring the village and the region, and drafting first ideas. The team included architects, urban planners, archaeologists, landscape architects and architectural historians. The workshop results built the foundation for the further development of a masterplan for Nivica.

The goal of this masterplan is to develop a model for a sustainable and prosperous rural economy, with touristic potential within Albania but also on an international scale. As a Living Lab, Nivica allows to experiment with alternative forms of (slow) tourism, small scale investment, renewable energy and local food and waste chains. The masterplan combines the preservation of buildings and structures related to the rich history of the region with a sustainable, diverse expansion of the touristic potential.
Nivica is meant to be the prototype for Albania's "100 villages" plan, which sets out to fundamentally rethink rural development in the country

Traveller and the Olive Grove

Sponge City Hefei

Innovation Valley Garzweiler

Greater Helsinki Vision. Eight profiles, one unity

Øresund Region 2040

New Energie. Opencast mining landscape Garzweiler

Nivica - A model for rural development in southern Albania