Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at inauguration of Stefano Boeri’s La Radura, a temporary installation exhibited in the premises of the Prime Minister’s office in an exhibition-themed event featuring an open discussion among the Albanian and international architects on designing and planning new residential neighbourhoods due to be built in Albania to house the affected families by the November 26 earthquake:

Thank you very much Stefano for providing this opportunity as it brought many things together.

It intertwined this event to exhibit this artwork to the public, taking place in the meantime at this new attractive space to everyone wishing to enjoy, together with something much more complex and serious rather than the weight of grace or this conversation about this post-earthquake themed installation. And since I am personally much more involved in this part and plus I have had a continued communication with Stefano, I would like to first apologize as I won’t be able to attend this event until the end to say first and foremost that I am really grateful to Stefaono because he already has a history with Tirana now, a personal, artistic and professional history as one of the Italian architects and urban planners who coexisted with the city’s history at a certain phase to design its development and indeed he has sent a message to me shortly after the earthquake, expressing his readiness to contribute through his knowledge and opportunities in view of the rebuilding process.

I am grateful to him for this and in the meantime I believe that with this opportunity and thanks to the chapters we have jointly written in the process of Tirana’s management and development, we are lucky enough to have people like Stefano on our side, including several other people, who are already involved in this reconstruction endeavour, as well as a large part of those who are attending this event, who have been directly and professionally involved in the developments in the capital.

But it is not the capital only, as other parts of the country included in the perimeter of the state of emergency have been also seriously affected. However, we are here to talk about exactly what we will do with the capital and what we will do with those who need to settle in a new house.

There are two large categories; one including those who live in urban areas and another category including residents in the rural areas, meaning that there are two different kinds of development, with one requiring vision and representing a major challenge of building new residential neighbourhoods, build a new infrastructure, develop new examples of urban life. The rest comprise a category of people who need a shelter, but in their case we face the challenge of not only providing them a more decent home they used to have previously, but also try to bring them closer with each other in order to combat the terrible fragmentation of their way of life, because of the scattered houses everywhere, creating conditions for some integrated, small communities in administrative unit centers or in villages.

The last thing I would like to say is that the various post-quake examples I can refer to are completely different, in certain cases with an earthquake disaster turning into a great catalyst for a tremendous change and transformation, bringing about a new quality through reconstruction and redesigning of many aspects of development, and, in other cases, earthquakes have triggered really serious situations and deeper wounds.

Stefano possesses specific know-how on this aspect due to the fact that he comes from Italy, which has many previous experiences and excellent examples, as well as dramatic post-earthquake examples. Indeed, a considerable number of people still live in caravans and cabins, still waiting for their houses to be built following earthquakes that have hit the country even 20 years ago. I believe that at this point it is quite clear that our challenge is to become part of the positive examples and I think that with the housing of quake-affected families and the initial emergency response we are classified as part of the positive examples, because it has been rarely the case when affected people have been all housed in such a short period of time. This is what Stefano was saying a bit earlier when we were discussing how thousands of people were housed either in hotels or rental homes within ten days only. However, the situation has been somehow more difficult in the rural areas where due to the residents’ need to stay there and take care of livestock we are providing them winter tents as the only opportunity for now. But in the meantime I believe that with the choice we have made, we will be able to start and complete quickly the reconstruction process in the rural areas, we will be able to absolutely within the next year, I am setting it as a deadline, but hopefully ahead of the end of the next year, we will be able to offer everyone the opportunity for a better home than they used to have prior to the earthquake.

Thank you very much everyone and by giving the floor to Stefano, I would like to express my gratitude for all of those who just like Stefano, or just like other international friends, have been always ready to engage and contribute. Once the reconstruction plan is ready according to the deadlines and steps and action plans that she is coordinating, Elva would need not each and every one of you here, but many more forces, because if we really want to achieve the ambitious deadlines we have set ourselves, we really need more and more people to assist in explaining the projects, implementation of the executive projects that are more complex since it is not just a matter of rebuilding or building residential homes, but building really new community spaces. So, I would like to thank everyone in advance for what you will be doing and accomplishing later.