Computational Design for Complexity-Related Issues. Strategies to Foresee Emergent Behavior and Social Conflict in the ‘Organic’ Tirana

After the fall of the Communist regime, the city of Tirana has been facing a series of social/spatial issues related to a top-down decisional system that could not take into account the new needs of a society shifting from a centralized system to a new one based on private property. The result of this phenomenon is the growth of a series of urban areas, where the poorest citizens have used informal settlements has a way to reclaim their portion of private land. In this paper, starting from original research (Dhamo [20]), we present Tirana as a paradigmatic case of ‘organic city’ (derived from the former Ottoman architecture) and we analyze a peculiar model of urban settlements that are able to grow following complex and fractal structures. The study here presented, structured as an academic class at POLIS University, will be developed through computational design and interactive engaging technologies, with the main aim of creating an interdisciplinary study framework to tackle complexity and evolutionary issues in contemporary urban fabrics. The process will be explained through three didactic cycles where interactive technologies, such as artificial intelligence and engaging human-based tools, can play to set the debate for a deeper understanding of the informal areas reality and foster co-design processes from the perspective that a collective interest is a key to let professionals, institutions, and citizens, work together in a more informed process of city-making.