Vertical Tirana 2023: When an elephant enters into a glass shop

Author:  Llazar Kumaraku
Affiliation: POLIS University

The above expressions may seem pessimistic and cynical, but unfortunately, it seems to represent the real architectural panorama in Albania. In fact, these expressions are very optimistic about the current situation and want to make the reader aware that tomorrow will be worse than today and that yesterday was better.

Let's understand each other. I am not at all pessimistic and not at all nostalgic for the past. On the contrary. For some things, I think that the future will be much better, and these things include services, medicine, traffic, maybe food, and others, while I have my personal doubts about architecture. These doubts arise from the comparison of buildings that were designed and built in the past with those that are designed and built today. Especially in Tirana and all of Albania. Let's start to analyze the case of the composition of vertical buildings in Tirana with what was designed or built in the past by international architects. The comparison is very valid because the projects of the towers of Tirana are also made by international architects who are supposed to have finished their studies in architecture before making projects. The fact that these projects are made by international studios that have built all over the world is not a guarantee for their architectural quality or for the innovation they bring. On the contrary, when architecture becomes a mass product, like all other products, then its quality reaches the mass level. Let's understand once again. I have nothing against the mass. I like the ordinary "middle" man of the mass as much as Orson Wells liked him in Pasolini's Ricotta.Here we will talk about architecture and mass architecture. Mass architecture is what is done the same for everyone, in all countries as if it were an industrial design product. Like all low-quality products with which the mass is “fed”, the architecture of the mass becomes the same for everyone wherever, and in general it is done badly and violently