Triggers That Redefine a City: Antifragility, Resilience, and Fragility in the Case of Skopje triggers-that-redefine-a-city-antifragility-resilience-and-fragility-in-the-case-of-skopje Volume 3, Issue 1 ARTICLES 2026 3 Cities are constantly transformed or reshaped by various triggering natural or political events, which can lead to positive or negative outcomes in the urban environment. When such events affect the urban condition of a city, the response aimed at its improvement becomes more important than the trigger itself. This paper explores the outcomes of such responses in an urban context, relying on the conceptual framework of Taleb (2012) and Lefebvre (2017) regarding antifragility, resilience, and fragility. The city of Skopje in North Macedonia was chosen as a case study to examine how the city evolved and responded to two major events: the 1963 earthquake and the transition period following the country’s independence in 1991. By employing a qualitative descriptive literature review and implementing Taleb’s asymmetry test, this paper evaluates how these triggering events redefined the city’s spatial and social conditions. The findings indicate that Skopje achieved antifragility in response to the massive earthquake, later stabilized into a resilient state in terms of seismic controls, and subsequently shifted into a fragile state due to the socio-political and economic challenges of the post-independence period. The paper opens a discussion about the future development of Skopje, arguing that, in order to improve the city’s current condition and regain antifragility, lessons from previous experiences should be taken into consideration.

]]> Bakalcev, M. (2017). Zoshto treba da go zashtitime Skopje 2014? [Why should we protect Skopje 2014?]. Respublica. https://respublica.edu.mk/blog/javen-interes/o-e-2014/

Deipenbrock, E., Held, M., Herbst, Ch., Kaulen, Ch., Kohler, L., Pudimat, M., Rohde, M., & Vincent, K. (2011). Skopje – A Modern City? HafenCity Universität Hamburg.

Deskova, A. I., Deskov, V., & Ivanovski, J. (2020). Constructing the City of Solidarity: Alfred Roth’s elementary school in Skopje. Histories of Postwar Architecture, 6, 121–137. https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2611-0075/10412

García, H., & Miralles, F. (2016). Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life. Hutchinson.

Ivanovski, J., Deskova, A. I., Deskov, V., Karanakov, B., Marina, O., Mickovski, G., & Radevski, A. (2015). Naodi: Nacionalen paviljon na Republika Makedonija: 14. Megjunarodna arhitektonska izlozhba, Bienale vo Venecija [Findings: National Pavilion of the Republic of Macedonia: 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale]. Mladinski kulturen centar.

Lefebvre, M. (2017). What is antifragility, and how can it help me? Primos Populi. https://www.primospopuli.com/en/what-is-antifragility/

Macedonian Information Centre. (2010). Skopje is to have a new look by 2014. http://micnews.com.mk/node/20979

Milutinovic, Z., & Garevski, M. (2005). National reporting and information on disaster reduction. World Conference on Disaster Reduction.

Niebyl, D. (2021). Skopje’s 1963 quake: From ruins to modernist resurrection. Spomenik Database. https://www.spomenikdatabase.org/post/skopje-s-1963-quake-from-ruins-to-modernist-resurrection

Petrunova, I., & Rustemoska, E. (2019). Gradot vo tranzicija: Od ekoloshki, socio-prostorni i arhitektonski promeni do odrzhliv grad: Skopje pomegju teorijata i mozhnostite [The city in transition: From ecological, socio-spatial, and architectural changes to a sustainable city: Skopje between theory and possibilities]. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

Resilient Cities Network. (2022). What is urban resilience? https://resilientcitiesnetwork.org/what-is-resilience/

Sidzimosvska, I. (2019). After overthrowing its government and changing its name, North Macedonia faces up to the urban crisis in Skopje. The Calvert Journal. https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/11141/after-overthrowing-its-government-and-changing-its-name-north-macedonia-faces-up-to-the-urban-crisis-in-skopje

Skopje 2014 Uncovered. (2018). http://skopje2014.prizma.birn.eu.com/en

Stefanovska, J., & Koželj, J. (2012). Urban planning and transitional development issues: The case of Skopje, Macedonia. Urbani Izziv, 23(1), 91–100. https://doi.org/10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2012-23-01-002

Taleb, N. N. (2012). Antifragile: Things that gain from disorder. Random House.

The Definition. (n.d.). Triggering event – definition and more. https://the-definition.com/term/triggering-event

Trajanovski, N. (2021). The city of solidarity’s diverse legacies: A framework for interpreting the local memory of the 1963 Skopje earthquake and the post-earthquake urban reconstruction. Journal of Nationalism, Memory and Language Politics, 15(1), 30–51. https://doi.org/10.2478/JNMLP-2021-0007

Wiking, M. (2017). The little book of hygge. Harper Collins.

Zupančič, T. (2021). Editor’s foreword “Občutek za ranljivost” and artifice of redress. In The artifice of redress. https://ar.fa.uni-lj.si/2021/tadeja-zupančič-občutek-za-ranljivost-and-artifice-of-redress/

]]> triggering events, urban development, Skopje, antifragility, resilience, fragility https://jba.ibupress.com/articles/triggers-that-redefine-a-city-antifragility-resilience-and-fragility-in-the-case-of-skopje