Photo : Expo Albania -Tirana AL-Studio Gang-Competition 2023
After working together on several previous competitions, we recently began a new collaboration with Studio Gang for the ExpoAlbania project in Tirana.
Comprising a hotel, a conference centre with multiple rooms, an auditorium, a very large modular hall, outdoor spaces and all the associated services, this architectural and landscaping project must integrate scenographic spaces and uses on the scale of the site and its context.
Together, we paid particular attention to the appropriateness and relevance of form and meaning, place and occasion. As a result, each venue has its own characteristics, intrinsically linked in terms of space and equipment to what is performed there: in traditional forms or in new modes of mediation and configuration. Events, whether commercial or cultural, have their place here. Stories are being told, stories that are both Albanian and universal…
This rich collaboration also extends to all levels of engineering, insofar as all these spaces – inside or outside, noble or technical – are made suitable for different hangings and supports and are networked in such a way as to allow all the interconnections – audiovisual, lighting, digital signage & global supervision – from one to the other and vice versa.
In an economy and ecology where the issues are not just of tomorrow but of today, working with Studio Gang is a kind of ‘archaeological’ exercise: getting to know the site and its context in its deepest foundations (physically, historically and culturally) , then investing in the different spaces, listening to them, feeling them at the right pace according to the different uses and multiple possible appropriations so that the graft takes hold. The aim is to create a built environment that embraces people and removes them from the role of mere spectators. The operator, the exhibitor, the technician, the artist, the visitor, etc. are at the heart of the project; everyone must be able to practice this territory and share it with reason and pleasure.
Unfortunately, we lost…
