Research on the impact of physical, social and cultural environments on human behavior. The main aim of this research area is to develop activities so that to create social awareness on design; to establish concrete ties between practice, theory and education in the design, architecture, urban and environmental issues. It aims to search and solve the problems related to physical, social and cultural environments that arise in the country and sharing these solutions with the community. It focuses on understanding, changing or maintaining the behaviour in the built environment as a complex inter-relationship and shared social practice.

Research on Curriculum Reform in Higher Education. The issue of curricular restructuring in architectural education in most institutions of the European Higher Education Area, has emerged as a concern to adapt to the Bologna framework of qualifications. The implementation of the Bologna reforms mostly focuses on how to provide minimum training requirements measured by subject-specific competences. However there is a lack of clarity on the nature and implementation of generic-competences, part of the “21st century skills”.

This research area focuses on exploring and developing bottom-up, learner/human-centered approaches to curriculum development. The overall aim is to expand the learner’s capabilities to adapt to the changing nature of knowledge co-creation and sharing. The need to cultivate attitudes of knowledge-sharing in collaborative practices is ever growing to parallel the advancement in tools and corresponding technical skills. The conducted research has experimented on the intersections between design pedagogies and computational approaches to design.

Team: Assoc.Prof.Dr. Edmond Manahasa,  Assoc.Prof.Dr. Odeta Manahasa, Dr. Desantila Hysa

The research area provides coverage of heat transfer, moisture, sound/acoustics, and illumination in urban and building scale. In addition, interrelationships between different building physics phenomena are elucidated to develop performance specifications that inform the design process. The research activities cover a wide spectrum of work including computational-assisted building performance, building systems control, building ecology, human ecology, sustainable architectural design and optimization.

The research investigates different methods in design and optimization towards a sustainable built environment. In addition, the studies are focused on estimation and prediction of innovative systems in various building/urban typologies. Different design principles are critically reviewed and compared via different range of systems and calculation methods to assess optimization.

Sustainability and system integration: The research area focuses on the development of urban sustainability assessment methods towards cities. The studies involve the sustainable neighborhood pattern and design, environmental impact on microclimate and ecosystems, urban form, land use and infrastructure.  These indicators are instruments to direct sustainable development and select appropriate policies for achieving urban sustainability. The study identifies sustainable measures towards improvement of quality of life of city inhabitants through optimal management of its resources.

Team: Prof. Dr. Sokol Dervishi, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miriam Ndini, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Huseyin Bilgin, Dr. Ina Dervishi, PhD-Candidate Nerina Baçi

The research area of history of architecture focus mainly in those architectural movements or styles which have been present in Albania until 19th century including Byzantine and Ottoman architecture, as well as  the historical developments of 20th century like the influence of Italian styles (Novecento and Rationalism), Stalinist Soviet Union Neo-classicism and socialist period heritage.

The research area of theory of architecture focuses mainly in the 20th century architectural discourse especially after the fall of modernism as a paradigm. The influence of philosophical movements like phenomenology, structuralism and post-structuralism on architecture are the main research topics. Another sub-division of this research area are environmental behavior theories which earned importance  after the criticism made to modernism for producing similar and monotonous architecture on a global scale, revealing the issue of place identity. This sub-division approach is based on the study of relation between individual and built environment.

Team: Assoc. Prof.Dr. Edmond Manahasa, Dr. Desantila Hysa, M.Sc. Kreshnik Merxhani, M.Sc. Katjana Boriçi, M.Sc. Manjola Logli

The main objective is to explore human settlements of different typologies and understand the relationships among urban, natural and social environments. The research tries to focus on challenges of contemporary urban habitat and find proper solutions for a sustainable development. It is on the scope of this research to study the city in different contexts and layers and develop a multidisciplinary approach to understand the complexity of urbanity. Some sub-themes of the research are: Strategic Urban Planning; Urban Morphology; Emergent Urbanism; Urban Revitalization; and Design of Public Space.

Landscape Research: The research motivation is based on the principles of European Landscape Convention designating landscape “as an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors”. As the target focus it includes the entire territory of natural, rural, urban and peri-urban character. It concerns landscapes that might be considered outstanding as well as every day or degraded landscapes. The over compassing definition of landscape aims at building holistic analytical approaches towards real life complex problems of spatial development/ alteration at a gradient of spatial scales. A special concern is dedicated to the utilization of computerized and digital analytical means like Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technologies, not only as a tool but as well as a common ground for communicating in a trans-disciplinary working environment.

Team: Dr. Fabio Naselli, Dr. Egin Zeka, Dr. Artan Hysa, Dr. Joana Dhiamandi

The Housing Research: deals with social, psychological, political and economic regarding housing in today's global economy.  The focus is upon how the research can impact the practice of design at the interior and architectural as well as the community and regional planning scale. The research is combined from the practical and theoretical parts based on the contemporary understanding of housing with reflection of such approaches, as House and Time, House and Culture and Economy, House and Aesthetics, House and Psychology,  overview the guidelines and recommendations of the dwelling construction, such as Design with Environmental Levels, Universal Design, Lifetime Homes, Design for Disassembly, to see, how the dwelling can be evaluated both by architects and inhabitants. Parametric modeling and design: The research deals with the main principles of creation of the innovative design solutions using the techniques of parametric 3d modelling.  The instrument of design is Grasshopper - a graphical algorithm editor tightly integrated with Rhino’s 3D modeling tools. The research is organized as a series of practical demonstrations of the software, which is supported by the theoretical and practical works of students. The work is devoted to the study of the new approaches towards creation of the algorithmic shape, which is responsible to the external factors at the final stage of design. It proceeds from the simple single objects and operations towards the complex sets of data and patterns study.

Team: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Albana Halili, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Edmond Manahasa, M.Sc. Teuta Kodra, M.Sc.Anisa Cenaj