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This Old House

Tucked in behind the main streets in our neighbourhood are a few rows of old houses. I don't know when they were built, but I imagine that when they were new they must have looked well. Now they look terrible. When I first saw them I thought they were derelict, until I noticed the obvious signs of occupation like the washing hanging in the windows.

In an ideal world, houses like these would be sympathetically modernised and preserved. Or a good architect would design replacements that were in keeping with the style of the originals. But it's probably only a matter of time before they are demolished and replaced with another concrete apartment block.

Comments

Albanian Blogger said…
What a pity, I really like old houses and old neighborhoods. When I was young I would walk around in the old streets and just love them.

Now they are so hard to find. Thanks for sharing that picture.
Elvis
10:07 am
eni said…
yes ..what you say is true unfortunately.I love the old houses , but not everybody seems to think so:(
liked the shot by the way...
12:07 pm
Anonymous said…
Probably the reason why this old building is in that shape can be either because there is no clear ownership on it (the complicated real estate ownership history in Albania), or because the inhabitants are waiting for a 'good offer' from the construction companies (in order to built a concrete monster there).
As I see it, either way there is no hope it will remain or mainteined... it's a pitty because it really reminds me of 'the not-so-old Tirana'.

OMIT, thanks for the picture!
2:24 pm
olli said…
Welcome everyone. Anyone any suggestions when these houses might have been built?
5:16 pm
Adela_Radu said…
By the style of the roof and windows, they look very much like other utilitarian architecture that I saw in Serbia and Ex-Soviet Moldova. My guess about the time period when they were built would be between the 50's and 60's when we were in good terms with Yugoslavia and Soviet Union.
10:38 pm
The PC said…
Definitely communist era.

Most older ("traditional") Albanian homes, were destroyed during communism and replaced with these monsters. I hope a few will survive the high-rise era.

This has happened everywhere. In Lushnja, there is only one preserved traditional home; The House of Lushnje. Until I looked into the history of the place I did not even realize that there were other buildings in town before that communist crap littered the area. Even though my great-grandparents lived in one. very sad!

Let's not even get into all the churches and mosques that were destroyed.

So yeah, although concrete buildings might not be ideal, they sure beat old communist architecture.
1:05 am
Anonymous said…
OMIT,
I was just curious where about is this house? Roughly! I don't seem to remeber it and it annoys me when bits and parts of my old home towne escape my memory.
Thanks a lot for the pictures and your commentary.
P.S.
Definitely 50's to early 60's. By mid-60's the commies abandoned the tiled roofs (tjegulla) and switched to flat "tarraca-s" covered in "katrama"
4:34 pm
Anonymous said…
Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!
4:12 pm
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