Led by children: designing an inclusive city

Public lecture hosted by LSE Cities

In a city short of funds where urban air pollution was a growing concern something creative needed to be done to change the city for the better. Elected in 2015 mayor Erion Veliaj has transformed the city, harnessing the power of its children, “a small revolutionary in every family” to help him. In his first year Veliaj took 40,000 sq m of land from illegal developments, making way for 31 new playgrounds. He instigated repeated traffic closures on the main Skanderbeg Square to allow children to play safely, now permanently car free the square sits at the centre of a pedestrian zone that has expanded monthly.

The Mayor of Tirana will talk about his visions for the city and the difficulties of introducing change and talk with Amica Dall, one of the directors of Assemble, a democratically run architecture, art and design practice

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    Erion Veliaj

    Erion Veliaj is an Albanian politician, who is currently serving as Mayor of Tirana. Between September 2013 and April 2015, Veliaj served as Albania's Minister of Social Welfare and Youth. He has an MA in European Integration from the University of Sussex and has also worked with several international humanitarian organisations in the Americas, Eastern Africa, and Kosov.

    Amica Dall

    Amica Dall is a founding director of Assemble, a non-heirarchical collective whose work focuses on the social and material processes through which cities are made, producing architecture, art, urban design and research.

    Ricky Burdett

    Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics (LSE), and director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age project. He is a member of the Mayor of London’s Cultural Leadership Board, and was chief advisor on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics and architectural advisor to the Mayor of London from 2001 to 2006. He was director of the International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2006. With Deyan Sudjic he is co-editor of The Endless City (2007) and Living in the Endless City (2011) and, with Philipp Rode Shaping Cities in an Urban Age (2018).