Current energy transition towards a carbon neutral urban environment urgently calls for understanding how energy scapes should be redefined, while tmeeting energy demand and controlling the social-environmental impacts of this transition within a specific territorial context. The energy system in Albania is characterized by traces of the previous energy-space nexus, which manifest as abandoned remnants of the past, referred in this project as Patterns of Production, or as automated landscapes of the present. Amidst these spatial uncertainties, Albania faces the challenge of climate vulnerability of the current energy infrastructure, alongside with energy poverty and environmental degradation of communist industrial sites, all standing as three primary challenges in the country’s energy transition. Therefore, the following research question emerges: “How can the energy-space nexus in the Pattern of Production contribute to energy security for a socially and environmentally sensitive transition in Elbasan?”

This project aims to establish a new synergy between former communist industrial sites and residential areas within the Pattern of Production of Elbasan, while diversifying energy sources, and considering the social and environmental impacts of this synergy simultaneously. This endeavor addresses the spatial challenges and potentials of integrating communist industrial spaces into the energy transition, while acknowledging their local strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats. Using the maximization method, three scenarios have been developed to enhance energy security, energy equity, and environmental qualities in Elbasan. These scenarios employ the Multi-Level framework to create a pattern language for the energy-space nexus under each maximization pillar. To visualize the implementation of the desired energy-space nexus in 2050, they are overlapped to define the vision in macro scale and strategic plan of Elbasan in meso scale, while considering the phased implementation of this strategy and stakeholder integration.

This project yields transferable insights applicable to other Patterns of Production in Albania with overarching recommendations such as: deep understanding of the specific context and aligning the energy-space nexus with local potentials and limitations, designing spaces of consumption and production according to the needs of local residents, defining community-based spaces, increasing accessibility to clean energy sources, and creating ecological synergies between energy production and consumption. Additionally, this project contributes to the existing literature on the spatial notion of a sustainable energy transition, specifically focusing on the Balkan countries, which have been underrepresented in current academic research.

North-western European countries play an important role in the global food system, by providing 80 percent of the whole European production. The current production system is focused on profit, has a yearly emission of 1250 megatons of CO₂ equivalent in North-western Europe and produces pollutants in the soil, water, and air. This results in an imbalance between natural and human activities, which is destroying biodiversity, natural resources and is increasing food access inequality. Therefore, our goal is to reduce CO₂ emission to net-zero in 2050 and to reach food security for all people North-western citizens.
We aim to design a sustainable food production system that is based on three pillars: nature-based, community-based and production for need. We analysed the current system through fieldwork, data analyses and literature reviews.
The concept of the circular economy formed our basis for a vision of an open adaptive system for the food production system. It includes concepts of circularity from the production on the fields, towards the re-valuing and re-purposing of household and industrial by-products. For each of the production steps we have developed a toolbox of innovations, which are integrated following the local context. New ways of production are incorporated in the farming process; management techniques, which reduce CO₂, are implemented in the processing phase; new marketing strategies are applied in retail; in the consumption phase mindset is changed to accept alternative products and meal planning. In terms of disposal, waste is reduced by reusing it as an input for other processes. Lastly, carbon sequestration is improved by recovering and increasing natural areas, leading to an increase in biodiversity and soil health.
This toolbox is implemented as a strategy in the region of South Holland to illustrate the spatial, social, and economic impacts of the new food production system. The circular concept ensures an approachable transition from linear to circular food production systems in North-West Europe. Therefore, it can be used to inform international cooperations, national and regional governments in making policies, and to provide an overview of the spatial implications of this transition on the national, regional, and local scale. Overall, it is a radical shift towards renewable energy sources, incorporating by-products as inputs and using and producing food products with a smaller CO₂ footprint.