Ermal Hoxha

XXXIII Cycle - (A.A. 2017-2018)

IDAUP
Home Institution: Polis University Tirana
Scholarship (research contract)
Curriculum: Architecture (ICAR14)
Research Topic: Housing typologies & Design methods
Tutor DA-UNIFE: Nicola Marzot
Tutor Polis University: Ledian Bregasi
Nationality: Albanian

Email: ermal_hoxha@universitetipolis.edu.al

Profile

Biography
Born in Tirana, Albania, in 1981, Ermal is an architect graduated in Tirana in Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design. His research thesis “Industrial Agro-Puncture, Revitalization of former Dinamo e Re factory through urban agriculture” had as a purpose to recover former industrial areas and to regenerate them through urban design and specific settlement models. In 2016 he was also graduated in Parametric Architectural Design, in Polis University. He is part of POLIS Press, the university’s publishing unit, primarily translating from Italian to Albanian and editing Albanian texts. He is presently an Assistant Lecturer of Territorial Analysis, Urban Planning and Design and Descriptive Geometry to architecture, urban planning and design students of the first and third year. He currently attends the International PhD Course of the University of Ferrara and Polis University with a research topic that deals with a new housing paradigm in Tirana, based on the aggregation of single residential modules.

Research skills
Architectural Design | Urban Design | Urban Analysis | Parametric Design | Interior Design

Scientific activities

ORCID ID:
0000-0002-4511-6352

IRIS UNIFE ID:
rp51966

Doctoral research

A NEW HOUSING PARADIGM Evolution / Hybridization of Low Rise-High Density typology in the context of Tirana

This research aims to study new residential alternatives (for the Albanian context), specifically the single-family home, as the foundation of all residences. This is a typology which offers additional aggregation opportunities and significantly improves the territory-residence-man relationship. The primary purpose of this research is the provision of a solution to the construction-housing quality relationship whereby housing implies the living space (home) and all premises (served spaces and serving spaces) that comprise the notion of housing. Is it possible to provide a better quality of housing without reducing the builders’ interest in investing? Firstly, this study will address the topic of sustainable housing in a complex context like that of Tirana and will also treat the housing/single-household module and the multiple housing typologies that arise from this one cell’s possible combinations. At a second phase, this topic will be analyzed within the theoretical framework of Low Rise – High Density (LRHD). Resultingly, the high density housing model will be studied but a version of which will preserve better (more humane) relationships between the private residential area, public space and semi-private spaces within the height limit of two to three floors. The aim of this research is ascertaining whether the LRHD model, a successful model applied internationally in the ‘60s and the ‘70s as a solution to the densification of peripheral areas but also used today as a way of restructuring specific areas of urban centers, may succeed in improving the construction-housing quality relationship and provide an innovative housing alternative in the context of Tirana. At a last stage, the research will try to transform, perhaps even improve, the LRHD model by adapting it to Tirana’s specific context. This reworking of the model may result in the provision of new residential models.

Keywords
Housing | Low Rise - High Density | New Settlement | Residential Module | Urban Identity