The pyramid is a conspicuous object in Tirana, it is a unique object, the same way the Eiffel tower is for Parisians, the Big Ben for Londoners, and the Coliseum for the Romans. It is one of the most attractive buildings in Tirana, especially when it was covered with marble that has been stripped down now (stolen), marble which was processed by the tones of chrome, with the slave labor of the oppressed workers of the Communist Party of that time. The same Party that was behind the idea of constructing this building as a symbol of remembering the dictator, the dark figure in the history of Albania, Enver Hoxha.

This work, which may be cited as the most important work in Albanian architecture, was designed by a wide group of experts in architecture, engineering and urban planning in Albania. A group that was led by the former dictator’s daughter Pranvera Hoxha and brother-in-law Klement Kolaneci, both architects. I say it is an important work also for the fact that it was not designed by Austrian, Italian, Russian, Chinese, or any other national that may have been deployed in “our land” up to that year, projecting the most important buildings in Albania. It was our engineers who relied on a genuine school of Albanian architecture, tearing down the usual vertical walls with window openings stacked on top of each other in a massive inclined area with a constructive fall, which I believe were calculated for the first time in Albania.

Unveiled in the fall of ‘88, and closed down in the late 90’s, without any doubt we can give it the award of the museum with the shortest lifespan in the world? Designed to be the “uncle’s” museum (Hoxha was often called xhaxhi – uncle), its function changed many times during these years. It was used for a library, a youth and cultural center, internet cafe, various fairs, concerts, and in the end as a club. Did I forget anything? Ahh yes, for a couple of years now the largest Albanian television uses it as their home.

This object, which has long been transformed into one of the most symbolic and characteristic places of Tirana, is now threatened with collapse, threatened to be replaced by “yet another” parliament (complex). It is threatened with “a death sentence”!

A victim of urban violence, a victim of a political ideology, supposedly to “forget” the past, forgetting in this way its core values and its beauty. With a form that differs completely from any other object in Albania, because it has a unique volume, with clean lines, unique materialization, harmonized beautifully with the green space around it that creates an active urban space, in one word, it is an object “with architecture”!

History cannot be deleted, because you learn from it! Therefore I propose its reconstruction, its re-functioning, I propose a Pyramid 2.0!

Editorial Note: Leart Mullaademi is the creator of ONUP (http://architecturekosova.com/), the only online portal with news, announcements and the latest in Kosovar architecture.

The article was originally written in Albanian.

Photo credit: Jetmir Idrizi

The views, opinions and comments published on this BLOG are not necessarily those of the Kosovo 2.0 editorial staff. Also, the website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted on the blog stories. All comments that incite and encourage hate speech or discrimination will be moderated.