ANTIFRAGILITY LAB /

Project

The Adriatic Diaries

Near Pasts and Diverse Futures between Albania, Croatia, and Italy

#transitioningSpaces
Period

2024 / 2025

Research coordinator

Simonetta Armondi, Agim Kërçuku

Research team

Beatrice Galimberti, Chiara Nifosì, Luka Skansi,

Start / End

settembre 2024 / settembre 2025

Partner

Albania: National Territorial Planning Agency; Municipality of Elbasan; Municipality of Tirana; Intbau Albania; UrbanLab. Croatia: Architectural heritage superintendence for Istria and the Kvarner, Rijeka; Deltalab Centre for Urban Studies, University of Rijeka. Italy: Polytechnic of Bari. Slovenia: Superintendent of the architectural heritage of the region Primorska Nova Gorica

Starting from oil and industrial plants in Albania, Croatia, and Italy, the research explores forgotten and disputed territories, investigating their fragilities and little “sparks” of antifragility through a decolonial lens.

Publications

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The historical processes of urbanization and capitalistic exploitation of resources, along with the inherited geopolitical organization, shape dominant narratives regarding contemporary economic and industrial development. These narratives distinguish what is fragile from what is not through omissions and forgetfulness. The research explores the concepts of “lost” and “territory” focusing on two areas: the first between Italy and Albania (Apulia-Adriatic Sea-central Albania), with past colonial relations still visible; the second on the eastern border between Italy and Croatia (Trieste-Rijeka-Gorizia), where cultures and ethnic groups of the Adriatic overlapped over time. Taking a decolonial perspective, the research examines territories which are forgotten (Albania) and disputed (Istria and Dalmatia), starting from the Adriatic Sea, analyzing colonization and representations to reorient attention to these spaces. Oil and industrial plants are the starting point for understanding land and water exploitation. The project aims to describe these territories critically through travel diaries, maps, and microstories capturing some of the fragilities of these territories and some “sparks” of anti-fragility (i.e., little practices that leverage the fragilities of these territories and generate opportunities). 

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