Eco Park Durres / Casanova + Hernandez Architects

Eco Park Durres is a large public park built on a former landfill that was a serious environmental problem for the city. The design is inspired by a famous local Roman mosaic, “The Beauty of Durres”, which serves as a metaphor for the transformation of a polluted site with negative connotations into a public space for recreation and environmental education. The site has been used for years as an open landfill where solid waste has been stocked without any protection. As a result, a serious environmental problem was created. Land pollution was produced by the leachate of solid waste in the soil. Air pollution was produced by the frequent fires provoked by people who burned illegally plastics and organic waste to extract the steel. Water pollution was produced by the spreading of waste in the water channels and food pollution was created because of the practice of feeding animals with the organic materials of the waste.