2023-10-30 12:46:12
Culture Communist heritage
How the Pyramid of Tirana was saved
As of: 11:46 a.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Tirana’s landmark in 2011
Source: picture alliance/SZ Photo/Olaf Schülke
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Derided as the Enver Hoxha Mausoleum, it was the most expensive building in communist Albania. But the pyramid of Tirana was in danger of falling into disrepair. After the renovation, you can now storm the summit. There are other ways to get down.
The flattened pyramid was actually supposed to be the pinnacle of the personality cult surrounding Enver Hoxha. But the ruler of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania died a few years before its inauguration in 1988. The pyramid of Tirana briefly served as a museum for the communist dictator, then a different wind blew in Albania.
The extravagant building on the Boulevard of the Martyrs of the Nation in the Albanian capital Tirana was used for a variety of purposes after the fall of the communist regime. It was once a radio station, sometimes a nightclub, sometimes a conference room, then again a broadcasting center for radio. During the Kosovo War in 1999, NATO set up a base here and at some point it was declared a cultural center. According to a parliamentary resolution from 2010, the significant structure should even be demolished.
Past times: Children climb the ruinous pyramid
Quelle: picture alliance/All Canada Photos/Perry Mastrovito
Then began a dispute that lasted almost ten years between city and country, citizens, historians and architects over the future of the pyramid or what could be built in its place after a possible demolition. A study published in 2015 showed that the majority of Albanians were against the demolition of the building. With the transfer of ownership from the Albanian state to the municipality of Tirana, it became clear that this wish would be fulfilled. And now in October 2023 the dispute has come to a happy end.
Details of the dark past
The Rotterdam architectural firm MVRDV preserved and redesigned the brutalist concrete structure of the pyramid. “It was the most expensive building that the communist state had ever built,” explains Winy Maas, one of the founders of MVRDV, “at a time when the oppressed Albanian population was living in poverty.” So they contributed The remodel “removed all symbols that glorified the dictatorship, but retained some of the original details so that visitors would also be aware of the building’s dark past.”
Pyramid of Tirana after remodeling by MVRDV
Quelle: © Ossip van Duivenbode/ MVRDV/ © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023
Colorful cube buildings also inside
Quelle: © Ossip van Duivenbode/MVRDV/© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023
Illuminated stairs lead to the top of the pyramid
Quelle: © Ossip van Duivenbode/MVRDV/© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023
The architects also added color to the building, which was originally clad in light marble and only added red accents to the steel beams. Colorful boxes are now stacked inside the pyramid, and they have also been thrown into the surrounding park. The building, once derisively referred to as the Enver Hoxha Mausoleum, has become a “monument to the people and their ability to overcome dictators,” said Maas. In the future, it will house studios, restaurants and work rooms and offer plenty of space for a non-profit educational institution that would like to teach 12 to 18 year olds free after school in music and film, but also in programming, robotics and animation.
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With the recycling of the famous pyramid (which, according to the architectural firm’s own statement, is also structurally based on the principles of the circular economy) Albania’s capital has gained a spectacular house for youth. And because MVRDV is almost childishly obsessed with occupying roofs, visitors can climb to its summit via many stairs. There is also a ramp where you can slide down safely – just as the fearless children of Tirana have done before on the smooth marble facade.
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