From fragmented city to resilient city

The contemporary city of Skopje is dialectical, it is both thesis and antithesis. Its urban-scape is a diffuse result of unfinished layers. Throughout the history, different concepts have left their marks on the city web, making Skopje a small and intense conglomerate of diverse ideologies, none of which was influential or long-lasting enough to establish a homogenous city structure. The dissertation departs with the presumption that the current state of the city is the result of a non-context based utopian standardization and control over the city through the past exercises of urban and architectural concentrations. It accepts the phenomenon of the fragmentation as it is, and steps forward towards investigating possibilities for producing positive urban effects out of given urban reality (as a total opposite of practices throughout the history). Understanding the constitutive potential, the inclusive capacity of the contemporary landscape, and above all the 'power' of the landscape medium to organize large urban fields, the thesis sets a field condition within the city of Skopje. It is based on the relational forces and flows between physical urban fragments and residual urban voids, referred to as post-urban fragments, which constitute Skopje's contemporary urban state. They are all structured in an open flexible system of continuous urban landscapes, which slide conceptually and physically through different physical and open parts of the city, bringing all of them together, while still respecting their autonomy and identity. As a system that has gone through dissolutions and reconstructions, Skopje had become a system of constant disturbances that lead to its discontinuous development. Therefore, the goal of programming the urban surface of Skopje, through the matter of continuous performative landscapes, is to create a flexible urban system with increased capacity for accommodating unpredictable circumstances and ever evolving demands. The disintegrated and unfinished urban state of Skopje needs to become adaptive, fluid and responsive system capable of accepting disturbances, without changing to a different system. In this way, we can establish a city capable of extending its own continuity - a resilient city!  Dana Jovanovska  She graduated in 2010 as Engineer Architect from Faculty of Architecture at the University Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, Macedonia. The same year, she was awarded with the Best Graduate Student Prize by the University Rectorate.  After obtaining the five year diploma, she worked as architecture and planning professional in two studios in Macedonia. In 2010, she was also engaged as a teaching assistant in the department of Public Building Design at the Faculty of Architecture in Skopje. Later, in 2012, she continued her education by pursuing the Master of Science Degree at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. After completing the course that specializes in Sustainable Architecture of Multi-scale Projects, she graduated in 2015 with 110 cum laude. Her dissertation, now published as a book with the same title, was: FROM FRAGMENTED CITY TO RESILIENT CITY: Continuous Performative Landscapes for Skopje, conducted under a supervision of Prof. Ellisa C. Cattaneo. During her academic training, she has participated in many international workshops in Milan, Pavia, Shanghai, Lisbon, Skopje, Kriva Palanka etc. She is currently employed as architecture and planning professional in one of the biggest design, planning and engineering firms in Macedonia - Prostor (www.prostor.mk). Additionally, she is working as teaching assistant in the department of Urban Planning at the Faculty of Architecture in Skopje.