TIRANA, June 21 – The renovation of Tirana’s landmark Skanderbeg square has claimed the European Prize for Urban Public Space awarded by Barcelona’s Centre of Contemporary Culture, beating projects submitted by 179 cities from 32 European countries in a biennial competition recognizing and making known all kinds of works to create, recover and improve public spaces in European cities.
Named after Albania’s 15th century national hero, Skanderbeg, Tirana’s central square was given a facelift in mid-2017 following two years of drastic intervention that completely transformed the most important public space linked to a number of historical events and manifestations from King Zog’s reign until WWII to the communist takeover and the early 1990s protests for democratic changes.
The new square is 90,000m2 wholly pedestrial public space, of which 28,000m2 in stone collected from Albanian-speaking territories and another 32,000m2 of trees, bushes and decorative flowers. The square also showcases some 100 water fountains in its stone area, serving as an oasis in hot summer days. An underground parking lot with a capacity of 358 cars has also been made available to somehow settle the capital’s parking stress.
Commenting after the Barcelona award, Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj described the transformation of Tirana city center as a gem belonging to all the Albanian nation.
“When we Albanians cooperate and don’t clash, we can work wonders. That was proved! There is no better way to celebrate three years of development at the municipality of Tirana,” said Veliaj, a 38-year old Socialist Party Mayor who will be seeking a second consecutive term as Tirana Mayor in the upcoming mid-2019 local elections.
David Bravo, an architect who served as the secretary of the European Prize for Urban Public Space, describes Tirana’s central square renovation as having understood the country’s diversity and highlighting it.
“Like no other public space, Skanderberg Square, Tirana’s nerve centre and symbolic site for the whole country, reflects Albania’s complex, convulsive history. The intervention has understood the country’s diversity and highlighted it. Now the space has a wide range of different uses, from morning prayers to evening concerts,” says David Bravo, an architect who served as the secretary of the European Prize for Urban Public Space.
“In the centre of the square there is a clear esplanade of almost 40,000 square metres. Rather than being flat, the esplanade is shaped like a four-sided Roman pyramid with a slope of 2.5% and a height of two metres at its tip. A fountain at the top lets water trickle down the sides, thus bringing out the colours of the mosaic paving which is made from stones from all over Albania,” he adds.
Albania was participating in the competition with three other projects, including the renovation of the 19th century Korà§a old bazaar, the Himara Waterfront and Vlora Seafront Promenade, the latter two made it to the final 21 shortlisted city projects.
Tirana recently made it to the top ten European hotspots for 2018 in Lonely Planet’s travel guide as a vigorous metropolis that has undergone transformation and that offers much to visitors.
Earlier this month, the Albanian capital city became Europe’s newest destination and the Balkans’ first where Chinese bike-sharing giant Mobike launched its operations offering its innovative cashless and station-free bike sharing platform for short journeys.
Tirana is a 400-year-old town that has been the country’s capital city since 1920 when its population was at only more than a dozen thousand compared to a present day 800,000.
Tirana was established in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha from the village of Mullet who first build a mosque, a bakery and a Turkish sauna. However, the capital outskirts boast settlements and archeological heritage dating back to ancient times.
In addition to the communist legacy for more almost five decades until the early 1990s, Tirana and many Albanian cities also owe much to Italian 20th century architecture.
