Enhancing cultural and natural heritage as a lever for the regeneration of rural areas : The village of Bënjë, Southern Albania, as a case study

Abstract

This book presents the results of research carried out by a work team from the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence, promoted and funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in the Western Balkans (Tiranë). It focuses on Bënjë, a rural village in the municipality of Përmet, southern Albania. Bënjë is studied and described in relation to the surrounding territory of the upper Vjosa Valley, of the hightest landscape value. The research defines a strategy of small interventions aimed at enhancing, in the most respectful way, the natural, architectural and social resources of the area as a lever for a process of sustainable and socially inclusive development, proposing an approach to the revitalisation of rural areas that can be replicated in other similar contexts.