The Kosova Urban Image Database (KUID) is conceived as a vital digital platform for collecting, preserving, and analyzing the diverse dimensions of Kosovo’s urban evolution. Its central purpose is to compile, digitize, and centralize a wide array of materials that reflect the spatial, morphological, and visual changes of cities and towns throughout the country, particularly during the 20th century and beyond. By doing so, KUID provides an essential resource for tracing the trajectory of urban development, documenting planning decisions and frameworks, and archiving key architectural interventions. It aims to safeguard the architectural and cultural heritage embedded in Kosovo’s urban fabric, while simultaneously fostering reflection, debate, and critical inquiry into the processes that have shaped the built environment.
The content of the Kosova Urban Image Database is curated through a multi-layered archival structure that includes historic urban plans, zoning documents, and neighborhood-level schemes from various planning periods, including the Ottoman era, the Yugoslav era and the post-war reconstruction phase. It brings together case studies of significant architectural and infrastructural interventions, housing typologies, public buildings, and civic spaces. A rich visual repository of photographs—ranging from aerial views to street-level imagery—captures the transformation of urban spaces over time, often presented in comparative formats to reveal shifts in spatial identity. The archive also includes a comprehensive collection of maps, cartographic records, and GIS-based layers that facilitate spatial analysis and visualization of urban dynamics. Complementing these are selected publications, critical essays, and debates that have shaped the discourse on planning in Kosovo, as well as oral histories and interviews with planners, architects, community leaders, and citizens who have contributed to or witnessed these changes. The platform further includes multimedia content such as short documentaries, 3D reconstructions, and timeline-based narratives that bring urban histories to life through interactive storytelling.