Cloaked in layers of white disks, architecture studio BIG has revealed plans for a mixed-use building in Tirana containing apartments, offices, cultural spaces and water features.
Named Tirana Fountain Tower, the cloud-like building will be raised on slim white columns over Rinia Park, designed to keep the ground level largely open as a public space.
BIG recently won the competition to design the building, which will contain offices, apartments, a hotel and cultural spaces.
Rows of perforated white disks will line the glazed facades and animate the interior spaces.
Two curved volumes wrapped in fluted glass at either end of the building will connect the upper volume to the ground.
Renders of the design show it placed at the edge of the Rinia Park on Rruga Sami Frashëri, where the Taiwan Center restaurant complex and adjacent Taiwan Pool water feature currently stand.
BIG aimed to improve the natural landscape of Rinia Park in its design for the Tirana Fountain Tower, surrounding it with planted gardens and adding rainwater management features.
The studio will preserve the existing Taiwan Pool and capture, store and reuse the water in a closed-loop system.
BIG's design aims to irrigate the landscape to help reduce the risk of flooding in the area and cool the surrounding park.
"Awarded first place in the international competition for Tirana Fountain Tower, BIG's proposal expands the landscape of Rinia Park beneath and around a new mixed-use development in the heart of Tirana," said BIG.
"The project transforms a privately operated site into a new cultural and mixed-use destination, introducing gardens, plazas, water features, and gathering spaces that connect the park to the Lana River while preserving the historic fountain," BIG continued.
"Selected from a shortlist including Cobe, Barozzi Veiga, l'AUC, and JDSA, the design brings architecture, landscape, and water management together as a single civic experience."
Tirana Fountain Tower will be situated near the Pyramid of Tirana, a former museum that was renovated into a cultural hub by MVRDV.
Elsewhere in Tirana, BIG is building the bow-tie-shaped National Theatre of Albania. In 2020, activists were arrested for protesting the demolition of the original 1930s theatre to make way for the new construction.
BIG is also working on plans to add a cluster of interfaith pavilion buildings on a hillside near Tirana.
The images are by BIG unless stated.
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