FORUM A+P

📢 Exciting News Alert! 🚀

Issue number 27 of FORUM A+P, titled "Venturing into the Age of AI: Insights and Perspectives," curated by Dr. Valerio Perna and Dr. Ledian Bregasi, is finally out!

This issue delves deep into the fascinating intersection of architecture and the evolving cultural ethos in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). The call for scholarly submissions provocatively interrogated the inherent connection between architecture and the pervasive influence of intelligence extending into its spheres. 🏙️💡

Architecture, as a tangible expression of societal mores, is intricately linked to the ongoing reassessment of these mores amidst the dynamic currents of societal dilemmas, preferences, and apprehensions. 🔄💭

Read the issue here: https://press.universitetipolis.edu.al/book/forum-ap-vol-27/?grid_referrer=2146

Get ready to immerse yourself in thought-provoking insights and perspectives that navigate the intricate landscapes of AI and architecture. 🌐✨ Grab your copy now and let's embark on this exciting journey together! +P

Universiteti Polis

📢 Calling all visionaries and design enthusiasts! 🌐✨

Our journal, FORUM A+P - Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Urban Environment, edited by Universiteti Polis, is gearing up for its Issue 28, and we want YOUR insights to shape the conversation!

This edition's theme is "Design for the New Worlds," inspired by the vibrant discussions and groundbreaking ideas exchanged during Tirana Design Week 2023. Hosted in September last year in the heart of Tirana, this event organized by POLIS University brought together brilliant minds to explore the future of architecture and urban environments.

We invite you to contribute your unique perspectives, innovative concepts, and creative solutions to this exciting discourse! Whether you're an architect, urban planner, designer, or simply passionate about the future of our world, your voice matters.

The clock is ticking, but there's still time to send in your contributions! Don't miss the chance to be featured in a journal that's at the forefront of interdisciplinary dialogue.

More info (guidelines, format, etc.( can be found at the following address: https://press.universitetipolis.edu.al/forum-ap/

FORUM N.28 //Call for PAPERS // Online
You can find all necessary information in the following link:
From the call: https://press.universitetipolis.edu.al/forum-ap/ #1699551791330-06ef640e-fd6e

FORUM A+P is calling for contributions from academics, researchers, and PhD students who have explored these issues in their doctoral theses as solo authors.
We invite essays that focus on any field related to the emergent transformative possibilities, technologies, projects, and research that not only push the boundaries of design and production but also redefine the discipline focusing on ethics, morality, values, and alternative practices and different solutions for the future.
The goal is to be disruptive, developing new speculative design for a positive change considering a diverse array of research approaches, in order to impact and influence the discipline of architecture and its broader societal context.
Speculative design imagines future scenarios and questions their implications with a clear objective: to identify the best direction and define actions to take it starting today.
Researchers and scholars are encouraged to submit essays that shed light on innovative perspectives and approaches that alternative technologies bring to architectural design. This involves exploring their potential to revolutionize the future scenarios while being attentive to the ethical considerations that may arise. By fostering a critical dialogue, this issue aims to deepen the understanding of the implications and challenges presented by speculative design in architecture, ultimately promoting a more inclusive and socially conscious architectural practice.

🚀🌍 🏗️🔍

FORUM N.26 //Call for PAPERS // Now Online
You can find all necessary information in the following link:
Link in Bio : https://forumap.org/submissions/
Scientific research’ has gained a special, all-pervasive status in architecture, both in academia and practice. From digital modeling to tenure dossiers, from building performance to invocations of AI, from grant writing to politicians’ electoral statements, ‘scientific research’ holds a special value, that of self-legitimation. While a particular ‘scientific’ research may be judged in terms of its scientificity, the value of the ‘scientific’ as such is rarely questioned. The ‘privilege’ of the ‘scientific’ (in) research lies in its presumed objectivity, universality, and hence, in its claim to truth. Paradoxically, it is in such claim that lies research’s commodification and politicization. Could there be, one wonders, a ‘non-scientific’ research that would offer a different (claim to) truth from the ‘scientific’ one? There might well be, but, albeit, at the expense of no funding… The very drive toward scientific objectivity seems to trigger an explosion and dispersion of different kinds of research, or “language games” – to borrow a term from Lyotard, which seem to undermine the very possibility of a scientificity that would govern and unify all the different research dialects. In How to Write a Thesis Umberto Eco made quite an operative and a rather postmodernistically relaxed argument when he argued that for research to be scientific it must:
·      deal “with a specific object, defined so that others can identify it.”
·      say “things that have not yet been said about this object, or it revises things that have already been said from a different perspective.”
·      be “useful to others.”
·      and provide “the elements required to verify ot disprove the hypotheses it presents, and therefore it provides the foundation for future research”
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FORUM A+P -Interdisplinary Journal of Architeture and Built Environment Of POLIS University.
————
-Board of Editors
-Board Meeting
23 December
-Sotir Dhamo, Besnik Aliaj, Ledian Bregasi,Skender Luarasi, Valerio Perna, Kristiana Meço, Ermal Hoxha, Keti Hoxha, Franklind Jesku
——-
FORUM A+P marks a new milestone as the Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Built Environment of POLIS University and will built up on it’s experience for more
than a decade into a new dimension of internationalization.

FORUM A+P -Interdisplinary Journal of Architeture and Built Environment Of POLIS University.
————
-Board of Editors
-Board Meeting
-Sotir Dhamo, Besnik Aliaj, Ledian Bregasi,Skender Luarasi, Valerio Perna, Elona Karafili, Kristiana Meço
——-
FORUM A+P marks a new milestone as the Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Built Environment of POLIS University and will built up on it’s experience for more
than a decade into a new dimension of internationalization.

Forum A+P vol.23 is now on printed version.

FORUM N.25// Call for PAPERS // Now Online
You can find all necessary information in the following link:
Link in Bio : https://forumap.org/submissions/

Nr. 25 Going high! The pros and cons of city verticalization.
Guest Editors: Fabrizio Aimar, Ermal Hoxha, Keti Hoxha
Main topic: The high-rise is recognized worldwide as a symbol of ‘progress’ and ‘technological’ power, an ‘urban monument’ capable of turning the spotlight on itself, bearing praise and criticism [1].
No doubt, by its sheer size and shape, the skyscraper is first of all and inevitably a sign, minimally a sign of itself, even (or especially) when its referentiality is putatively kept at a minimum.
Yet, no sooner has the skyscraper announced its absolute, vertical self-referentiality than it starts to work laterally and horizontally, to conjure, structure, and mobilize a field of other signs, objects, contexts, neighbourhoods, buildings, styles, cultures, technics, knowledge, ideologies, and desires.
Consequently, the call for papers aims to inquire and speculate about the skyscraper as a global condition yet framed from the context of an unbridled verticalization of the city of Tirana in the last two decades, and how such phenomenon is currently affecting and will bear on the transformation of the city.
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FORUM N.24// Call for PAPERS // Now Online
You can find all necessary information in the following link:
Link in Bio : https://forumap.org/submissions/

Nr. 24 Health & Wellbeing in the Post-Pandemic City
During the last two years, millions of people around the world had to quarantine, self-isolate, and apply physical and social distancing. Our lives, our family and work have drastically shifted into what many are increasingly calling the “new normal”.People work, study, shop and even get health advice remotely. Yet, not everyone enjoys suitable spaces for conducting virtual lives. While much of the public attention has been given to medical experts and government guidelines; de facto, it is clear that the way we have designed and planned so far our homes and cities has been shaping how we were facing the pandemic at an individual and social level. The web reports and scholar articles on the role of architecture and urban design and planning on the post-pandemic life and city are thriving daily. Indeed, there are so many fundamental questions to raise on the societal response in the post-pandemic city. Architects, planners and city experts seem excluded by the pool experts outlining solutions for the current global crisis[3]. Yet, this is an historical moment where their contribution in proposing a new agenda for the future condition of our urban environments is much needed.
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FORUM A+P from № 1 to № 22
———
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Built Environment of POLIS University and will built up on its experience for more than a decade into a new dimension of internationalization.

FORUM A+P -Interdisplinary Journal of Architeture and Built Environment Of POLIS University.
————
-Board of Editors
-Board Meeting
31 May
-Sotir Dhamo, Besnik Aliaj, Ledian Bregasi,Skender Luarasi, Saimir Kristo, Valerio Perna, Elona Karafili, Kristiana Meço
——-
FORUM A+P marks a new milestone as the Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Built Environment of POLIS University and will built up on it’s experience for more
than a decade into a new dimension of internationalization.

Forum A+P vol.22 is now on printed version.

Forum A+P.vol 22
——
Foreseeing uncertainty:
Design & Non- Normativity

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International Board of Editors
Board Meeting
21 January
-Sotir Dhamo, Besnik Aliaj, Ledian Bregasi,Saimir Kristo, Sonia Jojic,Skender Luarasi, Valerio Perna,Elona Karafili,Joana Dhiamandi,Kristiana Meço, Steisi Vogli,Andrew Charleson,Antonino Di Raimo, Matevz Celik, Michael Batty, Roberto Di Giulio
——-
FORUM A+P marks a new milestone as the Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Built Environment of POLIS University and will built up on it’s experience for more
than a decade into a new dimension of internationalization.
Forum A+P had its first meeting with the presence if its International Board of Editors.

CO HABITATION TACTICS
——
Imagining future spaces in architecture, city and landscape

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Team of Forum A+P - Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Built Envinronment.
Board of Directors: PhD.Doc. Sotir Dhamo,Prof.Dr. Besnik Aliaj,MND. Dritan Shutina
Editorial Board Institution:Prof. Andrew Charleson, Prof.Michael Batty,
PhD. Antonino Di Raimo, PhD. Elona Karafili, PhD. Joana Dhiamandi, PhD. Ledian Bregasi, PhD.Matevz Celik, PhD.Michelangelo Russo, PhD.Roberto Di Giulio, PhD. Saimir Kristo, PhD. Skender Luarasi, PhD. Sonia Jojic, PhD.Valerio Perna
Scientific Committee:PhD.Anastasios Tellios, PhD.Endrit Marku, PhD. Franco Purini, PhD.Giuseppe Mincolelli, PhD.Kiersten Muenchinger,
PhD. Kostandinos Giakoumis, PhD.Loris Rossi, PhD. Peter Nientied, MND.Rudina Toto, PhD.Theo Zaffagnini
Editorial Team:MSc.Keti Sula,MSc.Alma Gjoni, MSc.Steisi Vogli, MSc. Kristiana Meço, Lindita Muçi
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FORUM N.23 // Call for PAPERS // Now Online
You can find all necessary information in the following link:
Link in Bio : https://forumap.org/submissions/

The 23rd issue of Forum A+P, following Tirana Architecture Week 2020, invites scientific, speculative and critical inquiries on the com-position of techno-science, architecture and the city. Contributions may relate (but are not limited) to six topics, questions or areas of inquiry:

Techno-science and the modeling of architecture: How does digital design and modeling technologies influence and figure in the design process of architecture and the city?

The techno-science of building: How do the technological and scientific methods, product and applications figure in the construction and occupation of buildings, and how they bear on the social experience of architecture and the city?

Architecture and the city as (an object of) scientific research: How do the disciplines of architecture and urban planning define and frame their object of research, and how does technoscience influence the way we research architecture and the city.

Architecture, the city and the History of Science: What are the epistemological intersections between science and architecture and how they are mediated through technics and technology?

Housing and Informal Dwelling: How does techno-science relate to the housing rights for a Security of tenure, Affordability, Habitability and Accessibility?

Post-pandemic landscapes: In line with Nietzsche’s dictum that there is no such thing as aneternal return, and Bruno Latour’s argument that we should not “go back to the pre-crisis production model,” what things should we forever change or not change, do or not do, in architectural practice and education?
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Due to the not easy situation created by the global sanitary emergency, the deadline for the article submission is postponed to ‪June 21st, 2020‬.

The Call for Papers is Now online for N.22 Foreseeing Uncertainty:
Design & Non-Normativity!

Last year, in 2019, Tirana approached its 100th anniversary as the capital of Albania. Comparing photos of a bucolic Tirana in 1920 with what one sees from Polis University’s fourth floor today, inevitably raises doubts about the endurance of design, while conspicuously evincing the fluctuating tendency of what constitutes a norm in a world continuously oscillating between endogenous equilibrium (desired or imagined) and exogenous menaces.
The objective of this issue is to draw current research and design practices, as well as theoretical speculations on the topic of uncertainty and non-normativity in multiple scales and contexts, in and from the city of Tirana, with the latter understood as a dis-position, a tendency to change position, and as an opposition to normativity as «distinguishing adequate from inadequate, correct from incorrect, or better from worse in the context of a particular situation.

You can find all necessary information in the following link:
https://forumap.org/submissions/

with
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Edicioni i 2te, Panairi i Ndertimit, Arkitektures dhe Planifikimit Urban 2020, Expocity Albania.

Design for an inclusive future

OPEN FORUM

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE- Franco Purini, Kiersten Muenchinger, Anastasios Tellios, Loris Rossi, Endrit Marku

Franco Purini was born in Isola del Liri in 1941. He studied architecture and was a student of Maurizio Sacripanti and Ludovico Quaroni. In 1966 he founded a design studio in Rome, with Laura Thermes. Since 2015 he is Professor Emeritus in "Architectural and Urban Composition" at Sapienza University in Rome. Purini is a member of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence and the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome.
Kiersten Muenchinger (USA) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Product Design at the University of Oregon. Muenchinger researches the intersection of materials and design, and quantitative and qualitative sustainable design strategies. Her experimental sustainable design work has been exhibited with the Green Product Award, Germany; ShowPDX, Portland, Oregon; and Salão Design, Brazil.
Anastasios Tellios studied Architecture at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, where he graduated (Dip. Arch. AUTh), at TU Delft, the Netherlands, at University of Kaiserslautern, Germany and at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London, (M.Arch, Distinction). He received his PhD at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (Dr. Architect). His doctorate research was focused in issues concerning architecture, theory and criticism, image and representation.
Loris Rossi Graduated in architecture in 2004 at “La Sapienza” University of Rome, Master degree in Architecture “Ludovico Quaroni”. He was awarded a PhD scholarship in Architectural Composition and Theory at “La Sapienza” and he developed part of his PhD dissertation research at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of UCLA, in Los Angeles. Since October 2011 he is a Full time Professor at the POLIS University in Tirana,from 2012 till 2013 he was Dean of faculty in Planning and Urban Design.
Endrit is a lecturer at POLIS University teaching courses such as “Architecture Theory and Design”. Since 2008,he is part of MetroPolis Associated-Architecture and planning practice, working initially as an architect as the director and leading architect of the studio.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE-Giuseppe Mincolelli, Rudina Toto, Peter Nientied, Kostandinos Giakoumis

Giuseppe Mincolelli
Architect, founder of Lineaguida, language enthusiast, inventor and designer in areas ranging from visual to product design. Associate Professor of Design at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Ferrara, to which he is responsible for a laboratory about project of energy saving products. Numerous patents, publications and awards in Italy and abroad.
Rudina Toto is a senior expert in territorial and environmental planning and governance and head of the planning unit and of the workshop on territorial governance at Co-PLAN, Institute for Habitat Development. She serves academia for 15 years, initially at the Polytechnic University of Tirana and currently at POLIS University. She is member of editors’ board of Habitat Magazine, imprint of POLIS University, holds the Albanian Architecture Award 2018, and coordinates the Western Balkans Network on Territorial Governance
Peter Nientied teaches various management topics in the Netherlands for NCOI University of Applied Arts and in Polis University, Albania.His research interests include the themes of innovation management, urban commons, urban issues in post- socialist cities, tourism and new urban tourism, and human resource management and leadership issues.
Konstantinos Giakoumis is Associate Professor of History of Arts and World Civilizations at POLIS University and a Ph.D. degree holder from the University of Birmingham.Dr. Giakoumis is member of the international advisory board of the annual Art Readings published by the Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and peer-reviewer of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and of project submissions at the University of Crete.
Theo Zaffagnini (1968) graduated in Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Florence (Italy) in 1993. His master's degree thesis was published and reviewed by the Italian architecture reviewer Arch. Glauco Gresleri on the international architectural review “Parametro”.

Editorial Board -Skender Luarasi -Matevz Celik -Joana Dhiamandi -Michael Batty -Valerio Perna -Roberto Di Giulio -Pantelis Skayannis

Skender Luarasi is an architect, educator and writer. His PhD dissertation, received at the YaleSchool of Architecture on 2018, focuses on how design processes end, and how such question intersects with style, geometry and parametricism in history. Luarasi has presented his research in numerous international conferences, and has published in Log, Haecceity, A+P Forum, and other Journals.
Matevž Čelik is an architect, writer, editor, researcher and cultural manager working in the fields of architecture and design. He is director of MAO, Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana, which under his leadership grew into a flagship national institution with international reach.
Joana Dhiamandi is an PhD. Architect and Designer. Since 2011 she works and teaches at POLIS University and actually she is the Vice-Dean in the Faculty of Research and Development and lecturer of architecture at POLIS University.
Arch. Michelangelo Russo.First Level Professor in Urban Planning Faculty of Architecture
University of Naples Federico II. Degree in architecture from the Federico University of Naples Collaboration in the course of Architectural Design II at the Faculty of Architecture of Naples.
Valerio is an architect and Ph.D. in Architecture - Theories and Design at ‘Sapienza’ - University of Rome. During his PhD, he has been a Visiting Scholar at AUAS Amsterdam.He is currently employed at Universiteti POLIS (Tirana, AL), where he is the INNOVATION_Factory (IF) coordinator and Head of Research Center in Architecture,Engineering and Design.
Roberto Di Giulio is an architect, Phd in "Technology of Architecture" at the University & quot;La Sapienza" in Rome, Full Professor at the University of Ferrara, Faculty of Architecture, where he teaches Construction Design.Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Ferrara from 2006
Dr. Skayannis is Professor of Infrastructure Policy and Director of the Research Unit of Infrastructure, Technology Policy and Development in the Department of Planning and Regional Development.

Editorial Board -Ledian Bregasi -Michael Batty -Saimir Kristo -Andrew Charleson -Sonia Jojic -Antonino Di Raimo -Elona Karafili

Dr. Ledian Bregasi is Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Design at POLIS University
where he teaches advanced architectural design since 2010.

Michael Batty is Bartlett Professor of Planning at University College London where he is Chair of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA).

Saimir Kristo, PhD is a practicing architect and urban designer, Vice-Dean and lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture and Design at POLIS University.

Andrew Charleson has recently retired as an Associate Professor, School of Architecture,Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has taught the subject of architectural structures in lecture and studio settings for over 30 years.

Sonia Jojic is an US and Albanian based designer,currently working as a Lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Design at POLIS University Tirana, Albania. She earned her Master of Science Degrees at Wayne State University, Michigan US in “Media Arts, Communication & Digital Imaging”.

Antonino Di Raimo reader in Architecture at the Portsmouth School of Architecture. He joined the University of Portsmouth in 2017. Prior to moving to Portsmouth School of Architecture, he has been teaching in Italy (La Sapienza) and Albania (Polis University, Tirana). During the last years,he taught Architecture Design Studios mainly focusing on computation and ecology, and Architecture Theory and Criticism.

Elona Karafili, is a qualified professional in the field of urban economics and finance, with varied experience portfolio, including several managerial positions She has actively participated in a number of national and international conferences and seminars.

Boards of Directors -Sotir Dhamo, -Besnik Aliaj, -Dritan Shutina

Sotir Dhamo is an architect and urban planner with a long experience in these fields.
He completed his studies in the University of Tirana (1988) and earned an Executive Master degree from the Syracuse University in US, as well as other post-graduate qualifications including a Doctorate degree in Architecture and Urban Planning; He participated in several research studies conducted by the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning since the early ‘90s, and he contributed in other public and non-governmental organizations such as the Ministry of Public Works, Co-Plan, etc. Sotir is teaching urban design and site planning analyses in POLIS University; Sotir is one of the founders and Administrator of POLIS University, co-founder of Metro_POLIS, and Scientific Journal Forum A+P.

Besnik Aliaj – is an architect and urban planner by background. He completed his university studies at Polytechnic University of Tirana (1990). Aliaj did postgraduate studies on urban management at IHS / Erasmus University, Rotterdam Netherlands, and later on specialized also in Denmark, Norway, Italy and USA. He received a PhD degree on Urban Planning at Polytechnic of Tirana (2007), his ‘Docent’ academic title at Polis University Tirana (2010), and ‘Professorship’ academic title at Polytechnic of Tirana (2013). Aliaj is (co-)author of several books on Albania’s and Tirana’s architecture and territorial governance. Aliaj has organized and participated numerous professional international conferences and events, including foundation of “Tirana Architecture/Design Week” and “Forum A+P” scientific journal on architecture and city planning. Member of several international professional networks and platforms.

Dritan Shutina is the Executive Director of Co-PLAN, the Institute for Habitat Development, since 2005, which he co-founded back in 1995. He is also one of the founders of Polis University,where he heads the research unit and teaches strategic planning.He graduated in Civil Engineering and furthered his postgraduate studies in Public Policy, Land and Building Valuation, Urban and City Development.

21 January 2020

FORUM A+P marks a new milestone as the Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Built Environment of POLIS University and will built up on its experience for more
than a decade into a new dimension of internationalization.
Forum A+P had its first meeting with the presence if its International Board of Editors.

13 March 2009

Inaguration of the first issue if the
Scientific Periodic of POLIS University at Hotel Tirana International.
Esteemed personalities in the field of Architecture,
Planning, Engineering and Academia where present in this activity