Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama has prided himself in the foreign architects building in his country.
Rama has, more recently, been embroiled in controversy over plans to build a luxury resort destination by Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Qatari billionaire brothers Ramez and Mohamad Al-Khayyat on Sazan Island, a former military base, and in the Narta Lagoon area, a wildlife reserve.
In an interview with CNN, Rama said that the architects planning the controversial tourism hub are Bjarke Ingels Group; Kengo Kuma & Associates; Jean Nouvel; K-Studio, a Greek office; and Turkish architect Emre Arolat. The luxury resort has been met this month with demonstrations against it and Rama, and calls for Rama’s resignation.
Amid this outpouring, Herzog & de Meuron was named the winner of a competition to renovate Tirana’s Palace of Congresses, originally designed by Klement Kolaneci and completed in 1986.
The Palace of Congresses was completed just a few years before communism ended in Albania; it was built to host Labor Party of Albania congresses. Kolaneci was inspired by “traditional buildings of Gjirokastra, Berat, and the kulla of northern Albania,” per the Tirana municipal government.
The multistory building is located near Skanderbeg Square, and a slew of new towers reshaping Tirana’s skyline. It rises several stories with a symmetrical facade primarily lined in glass and stone. The entryway is framed by two pylons, perhaps reminiscent of the structure inside Pier Luigi Nervi’s Palace of Labor in Turin.
The most noticeable change the renovation by Herzog & de Meuron will deliver is a massive new skyscraper flanking the Palace, exceeding the heights of adjacent development projects.
Local reporters say that the multifunctional tower will rise up to 255 meters, or about 840 feet. It will house offices and a hotel.
The tower will be visible from afar and is “shaped by vernacular logic and integrated with the Palace and neighborhood beyond,” Herzog & de Meuron said.
The renovation will also yield what the architects are calling a “palace garden” on the plaza leading up to the complex. An additional roof level will change the original building’s profile and offer more space for outdoor gatherings.
The competition jury was chaired by Cobe co-CEO Mari Randsborg and presided over by Prime Minister Rama; Adelina Greca, a planner in Tirana; MIT dean Hashim Sarkis; Ensamble Studio’s Antón García-Abril; and others.
“The jury calls on the team to consider the height of the tower, its location with everything around it, as well as the space above, which seemed a bit informal and small,” Randsborg said, after the announcement was made public.
“We hope that as a team you will collaborate with the city in order to improve and expand the public spaces,” Randsborg added.
Herzog & de Meuron partner Olga Bolshanina presented her team’s winning design in Tirana earlier this month, on June 2.
Per a statement from Herzog & de Meuron, the design “intervenes in the existing building only where necessary.”
Collaborators working alongside Herzog & de Meuron are Julian Beqiri, Marsela Plyku DEMAJ, Michel Desvigne Paysagistes, Arup, LDK, Gentian Shkurti, SUEB Industries., The Space Factory, MBBM, and Klar/Fabio Beshiri.