The Brief

Project Solana Ulcinj

THE BRIEF – As presented in Ulcinj Symposium on Friday, February 12, 2016

 

The Project Solana Ulcinj addresses this year’s Biennale theme “Reporting from the front” by reporting about a crucial project in Montenegro, caught up in struggles between the local and the global, nature and culture, tourism and sustainability, economy and the social realm, and showing how architects may offer a contribution to solutions by offering spatial strategies that may guide new syntheses for these conflicts.

 

Solana Ulcinj Today

 

The Solana Ulcinj is situated next to Ulcinj, a city of 20.000 inhabitants on the Adriatic coast, in the south of Montenegro, just 1 km from the boarder to Albania. The Solana Ulcinj lies in the inland lagoon and the marshland of the former ZoganjskoJezero,in the lower course of Bojana River and is separated from the river by the barrier island – a natural levee formed by the river, which was partly replaced by an artificial dike for flood prevention and bordering Port Milena channel.Velika plaza (Long beach) is located south from Solana.The saline is a significant and integrated element of the Skadar Lake/Bojana River ecosystem of interconnected wetlands and as such has always been a unique biotope for flora and fauna. For migrating birds, it is an essential stopover on the route from Europe to Africa and Asia and vice-versa, but in general, from about 500 kinds of birds that live in Europe, 250 appear here, of which the rare Dalmatian Pelican and the Greater Flamingo attract most attention. With the functioning of the saline, a new, man-made ecosystem was added to this, because salt water pumped up from the sea also contained all kinds of small organisms on which specific fish and birds can feed.The ecosystem of the Solana Ulcinj is of local, regional and even global importance.

 

Following the initiative of the Kingdom in Montenegro, in 1920 the Monopoly Management of former Yugoslavia selected the Zoganjsko Jezero in Ulcinjsko Polje as one the places for industrial salt production. The saline “Bajo Sekulic” was founded. From 1926-1934 the first salt-pans were built as well as the infrastructure to exploit them: buildings, reservoirs, evaporation basins (8,6 km2) and transportation. Finally, in 1935 the salt production started. In 1959 the Salina Ulcinj had a first renovation and the salt-pans have been extended (9,3 km2). In 1979 an earthquake damaged salt-pans and infrastructure heavily. With the reconstruction in 1980, another expansion of the Salina including adjoining marshlands was realized.Today, the saline covers an area of 1.492 hectare. The basins measure 1.383 hectare, while dams, levees, canals and the saline’s surrounding outer drainage canal 109 hectare. Together dams and levees amount a total length of 130 km.

 

From 2003 on, different parties aim to protect the unique ecosystem that was built up over the years and turn it into an Emerald site. EuroNatur became involved and produced a management plan, which would protect the site while also allowing light forms of tourism.

 

Today, the Solana Ulcinj faces many economic problems which represent, among other things, one of the main reasons why it is difficult to find an adequate solution to protect and conserve this area. “Bajo Sekulic” declared bankruptcy in 2005.

 

The Parliament of Montenegro decided in 2012 with regard to changes and additions of Spatial Plan of Montenegro till 2020, that the Solana Ulcinj is recognized as a priority area for protection as Monument of Nature. This decision has been denied by the Federal Constitutional Court. Also the process of determining ownership at the Economic Court is still going on, awaiting the opinion of the Council for Privatization. There is a strong interest and pressure from among others the EU and certain European states in particular to protect and the Solana Ulcinj as an Emerald site. At the same time, the vulnerable structure of the Solana Ulcinj and its function are deteriorating rapidly, even if among others the State and the National Parks of Montenegro and the Municipality of Ulcinj took provisional, intermediary measures to avoid the worst for now.

 

Projects for the Solana Ulcinj

 

As the Solana Ulcinj has been out of use since 2012, it is crucial to develop new plans for its future, which are both ecologically and economically sustainable. The Project Solana Ulcinj takes the challenge to come up with new proposals how to save the important ecological position of the Solana Ulcinj and the unique cultural qualities of the landscape, while at the same time enabling and regulating economic interests in the area. The Management Plan as produced by EuroNatur should provide an important point of departure. Pending all ongoing procedures, the results may play a role in the decision making process for the Special Purpose Spatial Plan for Coastal Area and Spatial and Urban Plan of Ulcinj which are currently being developed. On a more general level, the Project Solana Ulcinj wants to rethink the cultural significance of the position of architecture in a world in which we can no longer afford to make the distinction between nature and man-made environment as they are now inseparably intertwined.

 

Projects should formulate and design a program and an identity for the Solana Ulcinj and come up with a future functional and spatial development of the Solana Ulcinj in its surroundings. The concept should include proposals for possible strategies to be considered both ecologically and economically sustainable. Apart from protecting the site as a nature reserve, they should come up with proposals for the salt production and for example for tourism, medical programs, wellness, bird watching, culture and other programs and strategies to make this protection economically possible.

 

Even if time is short for saving the Solana Ulcinj, programmatic and spatial scenarios that suggest a step by step strategy in time would be appreciated.

 

Projects should furthermore possibly give a vision on the:

 

  • possible functioning of the saline with old or new technologies;
  • restoration, re-use and/or reconstruction and redesign of existing buildings;
  • restoration, re-use and/or reconstruction and redesign of existing infrastructure and machines;
  • relationship between urbanized area, agricultural land and nature;
  • relationship/connection between the Solana Ulcinj and the city of Ulcinj;
  • entrance area and borders of Solana Ulcinj;
  • relationship/connection/barrier to the already existing linear city of informal settlements next to the Solana Ulcinj (Štoj);
  • the relationship to the Bojana river;
  • the relationship to the Port Milena channel
  • the relationship to the beaches and the green belt (Velika plaza);
  • infrastructure in and around the area;
  • possible vegetation and water management.

 

Practices are free to focus on some of these issues more than on others or on other issues the offices may find relevant, depending on their programmatic and spatial vision on the Solana Ulcinj.

 

Apart from visual material (maps, designs, models, animations – depending on the optimal communication of the project in the eyes of the participating practices), projects should be provided with a concept text.

 

As the projects will be presented in the Montenegrin Pavilion at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, in different publications (notable media partner MONU) as well as in public symposia (Venice and Kotor), they should be accessible and understandable for a wider audience than just professionals in order to enable a public discussion on the Solana Ulcinj.

 

Presentations in the pavilion should be proposed with one of the four rooms in mind. The kind of presentation, its technical realization, technical and financial feasibility and costs is to be discussed with the curators and commissioner, also keeping in mind the particular circumstances in Venice. The curators and commissioner have the final say about this technical and financial feasibility.