Bekim Ramku (Kosovar, b.1979) of Kosovo Architecture Foundation /OUD+Architects (Kosovo, est.2012) in collaboration with Nol Binakaj (Kosovar, b.1981), Kosovo Architecture Foundation (Kosovo, est.2012)
Prishtina Public Archipelago
Bekim Ramku (Kosovar, b.1979) of Kosovo Architecture Foundation /OUD+Architects (Kosovo, est.2012) in collaboration with Nol Binakaj (Kosovar, b.1981), Kosovo Architecture Foundation (Kosovo, est.2012)
The Prishtina Public Archipelago research looks at the current state of the public “islands” in the center of the capital of Kosovo. The research focuses on the structures constructed during socialist Yugoslavia that were originally designed as inclusive and public spaces, how they were transformed through political and social changes in the past decades, the situation those events created, and how they are currently used. The five structures, subjects of this installation, are the Brotherhood and Unity square, Rilindja print house, Grand Hotel, Kino ARMATA, and the Boro-Ramiz Palace of Youth and Sports. In the last century Prishtina went through drastic political and cultural changes that few cities in Europe experienced. Ever since the 1900s, Kosovo has been ruled by the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarians, the Bulgarians, Serbia, the Yugoslav kingdom, the Yugoslav Socialist Federation (SFRJ), Serbia and Montenegro, as well as by the UN Mission (UNMIK); each of them has had a great influence on the cultural and architectural kaleidoscope that is Kosovo today. This installation consists of a documentary, spatial analyses, and a set of papers in the form of a book that delves into the issue of publicness in similar contexts to that of Prishtina.
Image 1 – How will we live together?
The parking lot under a collapsed slab of the grand hall at the Boro & Ramiz youth center.
Photo: Bekim Ramku
Image 2 – Sneak peek of the project
Makeshift Mosque in Grand Hotel.
Photo: Bekim Ramku
Kosovo Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports
The President of the Republic of Kosovo
Prishtina Municipality