The Albanian Files

Albania is a young democracy, home to three million people. The country sits at the heart of the Mediterranean; its geographic location has long shaped the country’s cultural exchanges and built environment. From Ottoman rule to Italian occupation, communist isolation to post-socialist transformation, and located between the Adriatic and Ionian seas bordering Greece, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro: Albania has been shaped by past eras and absorbed a rich mix of religious, cultural and architectural influences – Islamic, Christian Orthodox, Catholic and secular. Following the collapse of the dictatorial regime in 1992, a rupture with the past emerged as people rebelled against regime-era buildings, reappropriating public space for self-expression. The ongoing renewal has placed architecture at the center of national discourse until today. The Albanian Files focuses on the architectural transformation of the last three decades. Under the auspice of Elia Zenghelis (1937–2024), prime minster Edi Rama, then mayor of Tirana, invited the Berlage Institute in 2004 to contribute to the capital city’s redevelopment, spearheading international involvement in Albania. This book records the country’s ongoing architectural ambitions by attempt- ing an overview of the built and proposed works by prominent international architects working in Albania since the early 2000s.