Archea Tower in Tirana
Archea Associati has won an international competition held upon invitation for construction of one of the ten towers to be built in the new Tirana city centre"
The building designed by Archea Associati is part of an ambitious plan for redevelopment of the Albanian city on the basis of guidelines contained in Architecture Studio's masterplan, which includes construction of ten towers in the city centre. The city government decided to hold a design competition for each of them.
Three international studios were invited to participate in the recent competition for the most important tower, across from the renewed central park in Via Shkurti,:
Bolles & Wilson - Germany,
Archea Associati - Italy,
Xaveer De Geyter Architecten - Belgium,
and a young Albanian studio, SON projektim.
The 85 metre tall building has a complex, varied functional programme: a six level underground parking lot, four levels of commercial space, seven levels of offices, and apartments on the top eight floors as well as a luxury hotel in a panoramic position at the very top of the tower.
Archea Associati's project, entitled "4 ever green", was chosen above the others for the way it manages to fit the tower into its urban context and create public spaces by narrowing the base of the building.
The jury, made up of well-known international figures from the architecture scene as well as Tirana mayor Edi Rama and the project investors, publicly announced their decision and stated that they chose Studio Archea Associati's entry for its elegant plasticity and because it identified and reflected the character and identity of Albanian culture in combination with specific contributions from the Italian tradition, to which architect Marco Casamonti repeatedly referred during the public hearing.
Rather than the glass and steel architecture of the contemporary skyscraper, Archea Associati's building is inspired by the well-established tradition of the masonry towers of the historical landscape. The building's motion and skin reinvent tradition, inspired by the weaves of the traditional fabrics from the Tirana area, transforming them into a texture which