Architecture as a cultural sustainability factor of Macedonian cities: The branding of Bitola

The current need for policy programmes for Macedonian cities to reach the standard of sustainable and prosperous economic development, and to enable their promotion on the European cultural map, initiated the Architecture as a Cultural Sustainability Factor of the Macedonian Cities project. The project aims to inspect the spatial and physical potential of the Macedonian architectural and bio‐regional heritage in order to create unique and competitive brands, and to develop the overall economic and tourist potential of the Republic of Macedonia. The project encompasses cooperative agreement‐based projects with the Association of the Units of Local Self‐Government of the Republic of Macedonia (ZELS), consisting of 84 municipalities and the capital of Skopje as a particular self‐governed unit. The National Strategy of Sustainable Development, ZELS' strategic plan for 2011–2015 and successive municipality action plans are the basic sources of information for the investigation regarding political, architectural and social aspects, providing legal instruments and collaborative forms between the residents and municipal governments in building up creative class resources for long‐term sustainable development. During the investigation a wide range of methods were employed, including collection of data and examination of archive documents, onsite surveys, mapping and evaluation of the cultural and architectural heritage of Macedonian cities and regions, and interviews and collaborative meetings with municipal and civic representatives. The findings outline the general branding strategy for the Macedonian cities, adjoined with a spectrum of interventions for site‐specific adaptive design concepts aimed to employ their unique physical and cultural identities in order to brand themselves successfully. In this paper, we present our first case study, the Remediation Project for the Quay of the River Dragor, which was completed in 2014 in cooperation with the Municipality of Bitola, and was produced to set the standards and the formula for the success of the city branding. Following the objectives of the Strategic Plan for Local Development of the Bitola Municipality 2009–2014, this project highlights the primacy of environmental protection for sustainable development as the basis of the integrated design strategy that relies on ecological principles. On a political level, it pioneers the grounds on which architecture expands its disciplinary assumptions, goals, institutional, legal and financial tools in the municipal policies of sustainable development.