From past to present: the role of municipalities in shaping the urban form in Kosovo

Urban form in Kosovo has been shaped by successive political transitions, post-war reconstruction and a rapidly evolving municipal planning system in a post-socialist and post-war context. Despite the formal establishment of planning legislation and decentralized governance, many municipalities continue to develop in the absence of approved zoning and regulatory plans, resulting in widespread informal and uncoordinated urban growth. This study employs a qualitative and spatially informed methodology combining chronological document analysis, policy and legal review, semi-structured interviews with municipal officials and GIS-based spatial analysis. A detailed case study of the municipality of Vushtrri is used to examine how legal provisions and governance practices materialize in urban space. The findings show that weak institutional capacity, delayed implementation of zoning instruments and extensive reliance on Article 18 of the Construction Law have enabled permit-based development to substitute formal planning. This practice has contributed to fragmented urban form, high levels of illegal construction and governance driven by legal interpretation rather than spatial vision. By demonstrating how temporary legal mechanisms become structurally embedded in post-conflict planning systems, the study contributes to broader debates on urban governance and urban form in post-socialist and transitional contexts beyond Kosovo.