Tirana will be hosting the fourth edition of  Tirana Architecture Week from the 16th to the 29 of September 2018 at Polis University, Tirana. The event includes a multitude of lectures, workshops, events, competitions and an impact-lasting conference. The mission of TAW 2018 is promoting international knowledge through practice, research activities starting from the Albanian context to the worldwide stage. The main issue identified in this year’s program is Co-habitation. 

TAW states their mission as: "The turn of the 21st century has been marked by dramatic changes in the political, social and environmental panorama, which are deeply affecting the way we live today: terrorism, migration and global warming are certainly the most pressing issues, and they are putting at risk our very life on this planet. So far we have come to acknowledge that we must simply coexist with such problems and learn to live with their consequences in our everyday life. But while coexistence refers to the mere - and often imposed - action of living together without any productive interaction, co-habitation implies living together peacefully, while promoting some form of exchange. This is why we believe that in the future architecture, city, and landscape should approach such emergencies fostering interaction and productive exchanges between different disciplines and cultures."

The theme for this year’s Conference taking place from the 20th to the 23rd of September, is Co-habitation Tactics - Imagining Future Spaces in Architecture, City and Landscape. The International Scientific Conference, which is an integral part of the event, aims to explore contemporary research activities and tactics that examine the topic of co-habitation, from many different perspectives and fields relating to architecture, city and the landscape. The eight topics derived deal with: climate change, ecosystems, energy transitions, memory, migration, mobility, technology and tourism. Nevertheless, contributors from sociology, urbanism, planning, leisure and culture studies, anthropology and geography are also encouraged to apply.

Tirana Architecture Week encompasses a cradle of cultural discussions gathering notable figures and lecturers. This year’s event invites Reinier De Graaf from OMA, Camillo Boano from The Bartlett Development Planning Unit of London, Maria Goula from Cornell University NY, William Veerbeek from Unesco Institute for Water Education in Delft, Michelangelo Russo from Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (University of Naples Federico II), Thomas Dillingerfrom Technical University Vienna, Nuno Gonçalvers Fontarra from Mecanoo Architects, and Sotir Dhamo from Cornell University NY.

Furthermore, Tirana Architecture Week will be hosting an International Ideas Competition in collaboration with AWR Architecture Workshop in Rome on "Gentle Invasions: Adaptive touristic facilities along the Albanian Riviera". The main idea behind this competition is addressing tourism and unpredictable landscape mutations caused by climate change through adaptive design strategies. With the deadline of submission approaching on July 25th, the competition invites everyone to experiment, with a jury composed of Reinier de Graaf, Luca Galofaro, Michiel Van Driessche, William Veerbeek, Maria Goula, Herida Duro, Ledian Bregasi, Artan Raça and Loris Rossi. 

As Tirana Architecture Week reaches now its fourth edition, the past issues of TAW dealt with Architecture that Matters (2016), [EN]visioning future cities (2014) and the [RE]appropriation of the city (2012). The venue, as always, is at Polis University, located on the Tirane-Durres Highway in Albania.

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