Bunkers
by Filippo Bardazzi

portfolio winners call 'URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2020', 2020
Category: Representations of Space, Architecture, and Conflicts


The quest for freedom and democracy in Albania started exactly 30 years ago, on December 1990, when popular revolutions spreaded all over the country. In a couple of months the demonstrations brought to the first multi-party elections of the Balkan State (March 1991). Before that moment Albanians were living for decades under the isolationism of a ferocious socialist dictatorship. After the fall of the regime, in less than thirty years, the country has changed a lot on the path towards liberal democracy. The route is still far to be fully accomplished but there is a general will of leaving the past behind, starting from its architectonical remnants from the brutalist period as well as from the previous Italian fascist occupation. In this complex context, thousands of defensive bunkers are still lying as ubiquitous elements of the Albanian landscape and force the community to face its recent History. All these concrete structures of various dimensions were designed during the government of Enver Hoxha, the communist leader of the State from 1941 to 1985. Nobody knows their actual number: some estimates suggest that they might be up to 750,000, scattered all around the country. Their construction took place from 1967 until 1986 and it follows a fixed engineered drawing created by Josif Zagali, a military architect whose career followed the destiny of the regime itself. Zagali was a partisan during WWII and then became one of the closest advisors of the dictator. In 1974 he was accused of espionage and was finally sent to a labour camp. Only a few years before his death he repented for his loyalty to the regime. Despite this hectic rush, though, none of the bunkers have ever been used in a real conflict (or as a defensive device against an enemy invasion) during Hoxha’s rule. The structures have today lost their original purpose and most of them lie in ruins or in full abandonment (while only a few have been converted to civil or private use), but they still represent a vivid testimony against nationalism and authoritarian regimes.


share this page
   also from URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2020
portfolio
I See Nothing
Frank Marshal
portfolio
The leaves will fall from the sky
Jenia Fridlyand
portfolio
Temporal Nature
Matthew Jessie
portfolio
Istinto
Gabriele Onere
portfolio
The Aesthetics of Transformation: Highway (re)Construction
Steven Benson
portfolio
A Bloom in the Eye of the Storm
Guillaume Tomasi
portfolio
THE PLEASURE OF RUINS
Manuela Naddeo
portfolio
Three houses
Nicole Marchi
portfolio
A Sleeping Place
Patrizia Succetti
portfolio
Il Fiume
Laura Volpato
portfolio
Marassi
Tony McAteer
portfolio
These Walls
Ian Potter
portfolio
Rare Earth Image Bank
David Kelley
portfolio
Makeshift
Pawel Starzec
portfolio
LA LIGNE D'EAU
Sara Palmieri
portfolio
Q
Giulia Vanelli
portfolio
A necessary space
Sergio Leone
portfolio
The Ugly Duckling
Giulia Vanelli
portfolio
The Drake
Tamara Reynolds
portfolio
Chiamata Interurbana
Davies Zambotti
portfolio
271 DAYS. ROME'S RESISTANCE
Daniele Molajoli
portfolio
Between the Levee and the River
Jennifer Colten
portfolio
Journey to the Lowlands
Valeria Sacchetti
portfolio
The New Company Town
Sam Oberter
portfolio
Independencia
Max Arens
portfolio
Frequency
Cristian Ordóñez
portfolio
Last Night The Sun Came
Jacob Black
portfolio
Stranded
Polina Shubkina
portfolio
If a Falling Tree Starts Making Noise - Communities of Tree Protectors in London
Sabrina Merolla
portfolio
Uprooted
Andrea Carnevali
portfolio
The Riesthal Gardens
Immelé Anne
portfolio
Ignat 2020
Mircea Sorin Albutiu
portfolio
Earth not a globe
Philippe Braquenier
portfolio
NATA STANCA
Giulia Bernardi
portfolio
Coastline
Masato Ninomiya
portfolio
Circus
Sabrina Caramanico
portfolio
The Garden
Alessandro Cirillo
portfolio
The Stone Time
Breno Rotatori
portfolio
Radure
Chiara Arturo
portfolio
Fragile like granite
Matteo Fiorentino
portfolio
Esercizi Obbligatori atto II - Compulsory Exercises act II
Marilisa Cosello
portfolio
Therapy
Tommaso Sacconi
portfolio
ČAROLIJE ( MAGIC)
Tijana Pakic
portfolio
Into The Warm Nothing
Fleur Jakobs
portfolio
PARADISE
Gian Marco Sanna
portfolio
Riverside girls
Chiara Fossati
portfolio
Suspended landscapes
Francesca Canu
portfolio
Don't be deceived by appearances
Benina Hu
portfolio
Pánta rheî
Paolo Michelotti
portfolio
Chrysalis
Annamaria Belloni
portfolio
Aisle Seat
Ilias Lois
portfolio
peripher
Andreas Tschersich
portfolio
SALT AND LIGHT
Ivan Petrović
portfolio
These Dark Mountains
Giulia Degasperi
portfolio
To pick up a stone
Claudia den Boer
portfolio
Nascentes morimur
Fabio D’Arsiè
portfolio
No Lone Zone
Adam Reynolds
portfolio
Occupied Territories
Giorgio Cecca
portfolio
Particles
Boris Loder
portfolio
Temporary encounter
Van Caneghem Dieter
portfolio
That is where I’m writing you this pretty card
Olga Laz
portfolio
Morning Walks
Roelant Meijer
portfolio
Soft Nostalgia
Suzanne van der Borg
portfolio
Pianura (Plain)
Andrea Arduini & Daniele Pilenga
portfolio
THE OTHER BRIDGES
Matteo Orlandi
portfolio
HOME
Giancarlo Pradelli
portfolio
#AdolescentContent
Sara Esposito
portfolio
Insecta
Rich Cutler
portfolio
Case Parcheggio
Andrea Petrosino
portfolio
Tacaná
Antonio Rodriguez
portfolio
Ora
Sébastien Arrighi
portfolio
Here are lions
Jan Locus
portfolio
Inner Place
Simone Padelli
portfolio
A Peculiar Convenience
Rosie Barnes
portfolio
Journée Ordinaire
Thomas Gauthier
portfolio
Greetings from the epicenter, Borgata, Siracusa.
LUC RABAEY
portfolio
E' rimasto solo il marciapedi
Giovanni Presutti
portfolio
The Butterfly Effect
Louisiana van Onna
portfolio
Trama familiare. Racconto di un oggetto
Noemi Civiero
portfolio
Gli Stati delle Anime
Giovanni Emilio Galanello
portfolio
Ciucciuì
Priscilla Pallante
portfolio
Memories of the Future
Benedikt Partenheimer
portfolio
Bikur Holim
Stav Tsur
portfolio
A Threefold Experience of Spaces
Daan Russcher
portfolio
Terra incognita (*)
Spiros Zervoudakis
portfolio
Greetings from the Parade Ground
Marcel Rauschkolb
portfolio
Ashes
Jake Mein
portfolio
The Street Becomes
Jaime Permuth
portfolio
Pego Negro
Bruno Silva
portfolio
Accùra
Laura Misuraca
portfolio
Conditions for an Unfinished Work of Mourning: Wretched Yew
Dawn Roe
portfolio
The Voice of the Cicada
Vasileios Vasileiou
portfolio
As the Blackbird died twice
Ragna Arndt Maric
portfolio
Ruined Ruins
Alon Koppel
portfolio
Zameen Asmaan Ka Farq (Hindi/Urdu: 'As far apart as the Earth is from the Sky')
Marc Ohrem-Leclef
portfolio
Guarita
Stefan Schmeling
portfolio
Familiar
Garrett Williams
portfolio
Earthquakes
Igor Londero
portfolio
Landforms
Neal Johnson
portfolio
Bright Spot
Shawn Records
portfolio
When the Trees Are Gone
Diana Cheren Nygren
portfolio
Messa In Sicurezza
Marco Gatta
portfolio
Interior Walk
Mireille Schellhorn
portfolio
Remains
Paolo D'Amato
portfolio
In Limbo
Mimi Mollica
portfolio
On Land and Water
Penelope Thomaidi
portfolio
When we grow up
Kevita Junior
portfolio
Cinema
Fernando Brito
portfolio
Morivo d'abbandono
Tiziano Demuro
portfolio
POST-MOSCOW [2019-ongoing]
Fyodor Konukhov
portfolio
At Night The Salmon Move
Esther Gabrielle Kersley
portfolio
Violently Happy
Alec Von Bargen
portfolio
New Buildings
Dmytro Prutkin
portfolio
Off the Mark
Diego Brambilla
portfolio
Gibellina 1968 - otto minuti dopo le tre
Giuseppe Iannello
portfolio
Frontières
Taillez Maxime
portfolio
Ontic Glow
Lisa Di Donato
portfolio
To the banks of certain rivers
Francesco Federico Natalucci
portfolio
Cornucopia
Panos Charalampidis & Mary Chairetaki
portfolio
Nativity scenes
Marco Rigamonti
portfolio
make hummus not walls
Matteo Portigliatti
portfolio
Foundation Home for Portuguese Emigrants in the World
Nelson Miranda
portfolio
Suburb 5
Gianmarco Caroti
portfolio
Lozhok
Nick Tarasov
portfolio
The Leftovers of Eden
Zsolt Balázs
portfolio
Walking Around
Nemanja Zdravkovic
portfolio
KUTHO
Andrea Alkalay
portfolio
Where the sea runs through.
Cédric Dasesson
portfolio
Serendipity
Nicola Buonomo
portfolio
Passing Time
Richard Chivers
portfolio
Crescita
Colin Malcolm Dutton
portfolio
Monsoons never cross the mountains
Camillo Pasquarelli
portfolio
God to Go West
Daniel George
portfolio
BAUXITE - (human futility)
Federico Patrocinio
portfolio
Un luogo bello
Alessandro Mallamaci
portfolio
Qui non c'é nessuno
Lorenzo Mini
portfolio
Every Exits And Junctions On The Motorway A4
Mirko Lamonaca
portfolio
River Under Earth
Dmitry Ermakov
portfolio
Thousand shades of blue between us, Bangkok
Alessio Pellicoro
portfolio
Vanished
Claudia Orsetti
portfolio
Silent Occupation
Saccoccio Romain
portfolio
Bee Generation
Marco Ristuccia
portfolio
Where The Echo Still resound
Jacopo Brunello
portfolio
La Corsa dei Ceri di Gubbio (Ceri’s race)
Giuseppe Cardoni
portfolio
Berlin and its difficult relation with History
Luca Girardini
portfolio
Warmer Than The Sun
Elise Corten
portfolio
PACIFICVM
Matteo Palmieri
portfolio
Schermi provvisori
Giovanni Orlando
portfolio
Definirti è limitarti
Matteo Spertini
portfolio
Yinanping
Qiushi Chen
portfolio
Familiar: Archivio Affettivo Siciliano (an emotional archive of Sicily)
Camilla Glorioso
portfolio
Air-Conditioned Nation


portfolio
From The Goat Land
Claudia Professione
portfolio
Family Portraits
Maria Mavropoulou
portfolio
Hiroshima mon amour
Martina Elizabeth Di Carlo
portfolio
Zimmerfrei
Francesco Biasi
portfolio
Devil's Promenade
Antone Dolezal & Lara Shipley
call
URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2020
portfolio
The Nam Ou from the series The Corridor of Opportunity - landscape stories from Lao PDR
Tessa Bunney
portfolio
Post Encounters
Tal Ben Avi
portfolio
Saeta
Curro Rodriguez Sanchez
portfolio
Elements
Fulvio Orsenigo
portfolio
Silver City, Lode of Lead
Jamie Hladky
portfolio
When the upper lip loses its softness
Bettina Koller
portfolio
Hanging on the Wall
Jake Romm
portfolio
On Wilderness And The Captive Gaze
Dario Bosio
portfolio
How to Build a Mountain
Anne Bergman
portfolio
Something and Nothing
Carlo Chiapponi
portfolio
By the Creek, Opposite of a Meadow
Michaela Nagyidaiová
portfolio
High Garden
Tom Spach
portfolio
Awaiting the Bridge
Maja Nydal
portfolio
Sotto lo stesso cielo
Giammario Corsi
portfolio
A substrata of disaster. The Salient.
Michele Spagnolo
portfolio
By th silent line
Pierre Folk
portfolio
Umane Tracce
Nicola Paccagnella
portfolio
BRAZILKA
Emanuela Colombo
portfolio
Sunny days / A true story
Kosmas Pavlidis
portfolio
Impermanence: Louisiana’s Fraying Coast
Daniel Kariko
portfolio
A Return to Foul Bay
Alexandra Majerus
portfolio
SIN
Matteo Capone
portfolio
The New City
Douglas Ljungkvist
portfolio
The Land of Elephants
Silvy Amorim Crespo
portfolio
Uniformity
Orestis Seferoglou
portfolio
Megalomania - Delusions of Grandeur
Simon Van Geel
portfolio
NSENENE
Michele Sibiloni
portfolio
Estamos na Luta
Tommaso Rada
portfolio
Satan's Casual Demise
Mark Sawrie
portfolio
Holyhead -Sea Change?
Robert Law
portfolio
Ototeman
Arianna Savo
portfolio
Slowly Westward: A Journey Through A Folded Landscape
Mark McGuinness
portfolio
Sclavanie
Davide Degano
portfolio
Grab Your Bibles, There's a Storm Comin'
Evan Perkins
portfolio
Pai Mar
Hermano Noronha
portfolio
DISMANTLED
Ian Harris
portfolio
.No.Code. - ELEMENTARY HIEROPHANIES AND DECODING OF THE GAZE
Stefano Parrini
portfolio
Blue Bar
Matteo Di Giovanni
portfolio
Telepath
Michele Vittori
portfolio
Collectus
Simone Foglia
portfolio
GEOPHAGIA
Mariano Monea
portfolio
Chronos
Alberto Ceresa
portfolio
The untangled tales
Michelle Piergoelam