Description
Albania is one of those European countries that comes not to your mind on first sight. Located in southeastern Europe on the Adriatic and Ionian Sea within the Mediterranean Sea sharing borders with Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Greece, Albania is kind of hidden and set aside the big European axes. But this is about to change. The municipality of Tirana is currently working with internationally renowned offices such as MVRDV (The Netherlands), BIG (Denmark) or Stefano Boeri (Italy) and can already present realized projects by 51N4E (Belgium) and Bolles + Wilson (Germany) to make Tirana remarkable on the architectural map.
The project recently won by Saint-Gobain – Downtown One, a 140-metre tall mixed-use skyscraper in Tirana that will become Albania’s tallest building. The most striking element of the 37-storey tower is its façade relief of cantilevered houses and offices, which form a pixelated “map” of Albania, each representing a town or city, turning this building into an icon in the heart of Tirana. The importance of these cantilevers is not only iconographic; for occupants of the building, the projecting bay windows with CLIMAPLUS COOL-LITE® SKN 176 offer spectacular panoramic views of the city and the mountains, while the terraces created enable communication and connection between residents to give the feeling of a vertical village. Completion of the building, which was designed by MDRDV for developer Kastrati Construction, is expected in 2024.
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