This is a project idea for the Book Building, a 24 000 m2 multipurpose development in the heart of Tirana. The site is located on the edge of Skanderbeg Square, next to the mosque and the clock tower, between Toptani Street and 28 Nëntori Street. This unique location gives the project a high strategic value in the development of Tirana’s city centre.

In the absence of a restrictive set of urban rules, this project is an opportunity to engage in an open dialogue on how we envision densifying the centre of Tirana.

The project bears a responsibility in showing how this future can be envisioned. We have identified some of the important aspects that make Tirana a unique and high-quality metropolitan centre. The project idea translates these different aspects into a prototype for the future Tirana.

The centre of Tirana has everything to become the place to meet for people from both inside and outside Tirana. A large central park, Skanderbeg Square, a range of public infrastructures, cultural venues and hospitality services will turn Tirana into an attractive destination for people to come together.

The Book Building is co-writing the transformation of downtown Tirana. The project’s architecture is an expression of a young and dynamic society that is free to invent its own identity. An open and joyful city. The project consists of three solitary buildings that integrate both the small human scale of the city and the big scale of the future metropolis.

The three buildings are shaped and positioned in such a way as to create an open and permeable city. This will produce a shaded, ventilated and comfortable environment for a wide spectrum of activities to happen.

Fifty per cent of the ground floor will remain accessible to the public.

• Location

  Tirana, Albania

• Client

  Undisclosed

• In collaboration with

  iRI

• 51N4E project team

  Freek Persyn, Johan Anrys, Ajmona Hoxha, Alice Babini, Guillem Pons, Guust Selhorst, Jan Opdekamp, Laura Villeret, Marta Petrov, Matteo Frangi, Maxime Le Droupeet, Oscar Broekhoven, Paul Steinbrück

• 51N4E involvement

  Full design assignment

• Structural engineer

  Gentian Lipe

• Technical Engineer

  Hydro & Energy (Nikolin Risilia), ITE grup (Saimir Saimir)

• Landscape

  Plant en Houtgoed

• Construction management

  iRI

• Programme

  Housing, office municipality, 2 hotels, public rooftop plaza, communcal agora, public ground floor

• Site surface

  7.000 m²

• Built surface

  24.000 m²

• Image credits

  51N4E