Tirana Rocks: MVRDV wins lakeside competition with dense urban and ecological masterplan
(Rotterdam, September 3rd, 2008) The city of Tirana and an international jury announced MVRDV winner of the competition for the urban masterplan creating a new dense urban neighborhood with a park and public facilities at the shore of Tirana Lake, in the south of the Albanian capital.
Tirana Lake is one of the highly valuable green areas of the city. The project foresees the regeneration of a 20ha site on the north shore of the lake by creating a dense urban neighborhood liberating space for a park, recreational facilities, new public spaces and ecologic interventions.
The cantilevered and leaning buildings allow for a great variety of apartment types, shopping and offices and ‘echo’ the Tirana typology. The stacked and twisted volumes create spectacular public spaces and provide dramatic vistas. Clad in local stones the buildings turn into a series of ‘rocks’, the ‘Tirana Rocks’.
Dense clustering of the program on the lake side allows the site to become part of the chain of parks surrounding the lake. Planting a park of Jacaranda trees will add a new characteristic element to the area and provide natural shade; the tree’s long lasting blue flowers will appear as a ‘blue cloud’. A promenade along the water creates an active social zone that contributes to the idea of a ‘Copa Tirana’.
Edi Rama, the mayor of Tirana who received the 2004 World Mayor Award presented the winning scheme on national television.
The masterplan consists of 225.000m2 housing, 60.000m2 offices, 20.000m2 public buildings, 60.000m2 retail, a hotel of 15.000m2 and 20.000m2 sport and recreational facilities and a car park. Start construction is envisioned for 2010, the total estimated investment is 600 million Euro. The client is a group of Albanian private developers; the project is managed by Ambito Project Management, Madrid, Spain.
MVRDV won the competition from among others Bolles + Wilson, David Chipperfield Architects and Carlos Ferrater.
I think it is terrible. I generally like MVRD's work but this project seems rather inadequate as a simple mass of stone. I would like to see the types of interstitial spaces these buildings create? I would like to see a little explanation of the rigor and system with which this development was achieved? I hardly feel that the submission handles many "urban" issues and the scale of the whole project very much concerns me. Just my .02 cents worth.
I've been to Tirana. And I worked for these guys about six years ago. Knowing the internal process of the office a little bit, I think there's probably a good amount of data and research that fed into what seems more like a purely intuitive notion of putting "rocks" around this lake. So the images released achieve that classic shock value that MVRDV is great for, and I'm just wondering if we'll get to see more of what odee is asking for in explanation of the system of these dominoes.
I am curious what they mean by the forms "echo[ing] the Tirana typology".
Nick, I am sure you are right, there is more. Right now it's all language and for me, that gets a bit old when you read the same architecture blather over and over.
Generally, I really like MVRD's work having visited several. Hopefully this one will be the same.
i dunno if its good or bad.... i rather focus on the difference of opinion that european and american urbanism have...i mean is notdifferent opinions, is just different ways of understanding cities.... basic example, pedestrian cities vs car/suburbia cities.
as Corbu would say... "the architect is always wrong, real life is always right"
so we would see.... its more about if people embrace and understand the concept they get proposed, not about budget, drawings and aesthetics
essentially the project is a speculative development. the typology of the project is about the same everywhere else, nothing new.
if you look at the area tabulations, you will see it is essentially a high priced housing (read condo development) paired with a large shopping mall with all the ecology and typology candy attached. i think the project would be disastrous for the people directly north (closer to reader before the red area) of the project, cutting and blocking their visual and public access forever to the lake, turning and claiming the area as their private lake front. how's that for a great master planning?
if i was in tirana, i'd be asking for a visual corridor to the lake and make sure public access to it is unfettered via deed restriction. project rises like an oppressive block in front of many neighborhoods.
like nick sowers above, i am also curious about "Tirana typology". i hope it is not one of those descriptions of stylizing chaos or visual pollution that highly disciplined societies of the west find 'interesting.'
i think this project is part of a new geo-mimicry movement in architecture, which i think is pretty interesting. i have to say i was pretty struck by mvrdv's proposal for the motor city competition in spain last year and this seems to be in the same vein, although not as interesting. it's hard to tell from the bird's eye perspectives provided.
i really hope the image shown which devolves into mvrdv's typical collage of different building typologies and skins is a joke because to me it's not as powerful as the univalence of the images first published on dezeen.
the architectural analogy of spending 2 hours fixing your hair up in the morning so it looks as if you've just awaken;
orhan...well put: "i hope it is not one of another descriptions of stylizing chaos or visual pollution that highly disciplined societies of the west find 'interesting.'" at first look, that site deserves better...
the top 3 are
in third place is "interstitial spaces" by odee
first runner up "stylizing chaos or visual pollution" by Orhan Ayyüce
and the winner is..."a new geo-mimicry" by o d b
I will attempt to say my piece whilst simultaneously crafting a new lexicon of funny architectural words
to be honest at first glance I did gasp at this project, for many reasons beyond the fact that it did not fit into my notion of what "a masterplan is supposed to be" similarly I couldn't make out the architecture in it either. But truth be told MVRDV is very good at that... taking unlike circumstances smushing them together and creating beautiful, sensible architecture with it. the Dutch pavilion had everyone gasping in shock and horror when it was a funny sketch that looked more like fido dido, but by the time they sprinkled their magic, the architecture emerged. I suspect this may one of those times, and we will just have to (like HdM and the Tate) wait and see. Nonetheless I can see the makings of something interesting, that perhaps runs counter to my learned colleague. The context is apparent in the aerial shot of typical blocks scattered about the city, although less like stones/rocks - more like fallen buildings. Also how their proposal aims to give structure to the wildness of the green/park. Perhaps not the moves I would make but it sets up an interesting layering effect from concrete, to grass, to destruction, to water...
Surely, the "mayor of the year" wants to create a Bilbao effect on Tirana. What better than a scheme like this? I have to say though I am more or less happy with the scheme based on limited information.
The level of "critique" at dezeen [which I check on a daily basis and is a great site] is comparable to high school students comparing the hairstyles on America's Next top model. If the comments on a project at dezeen are on the whole good, I am suspicious. If they are condemnatory, I am more likely to approve of the project almost out of spite.
The images on Dezeen do seem to show that alll the development is clustered along the which seems to have a primary and secondary effects.
The primary gives what will probably amount to an exclusive if not legally then spatially, lakeshore access for the development and secondarily to create a bunch of green space at the front of the plot which i am sure has been used to tout how eco they are being, (as Orhan pointed out).
Now i am sure they locals would love a bunch more parkland but i hope they also get visual and spatial access to the lake, which they currently have...
Also. I agree that the initial image of mono color rock like forms is more compelling than any of the others....
Sep 5, 08 8:22 am ·
·
It's not geo-mimicry, it's jury-mimicry!
"Hey, let's design a reenactment of this painting."
"Yeah, we'll do it like abstractly, and when other architects see the scheme they'll start reenacting a design jury."
"Brilliant!"
--excerpt from "Scalping Double Theater Tickets" in The Further Adventures of the Broke Baroque Style.
Someone stole some crystal meth, screwed around on form Z for a little while and got "creative."
Sep 5, 08 9:08 am ·
·
the next design...
Sep 5, 08 9:38 am ·
·
"In September 2001, while seeing a display of quartz crystals (each labeled as to its geographic origin) compiled over 100 years ago, I thought it would be cool if the buildings of any global location started to match the formations of the local quartz. It was after seeing Harz Mountain quartz that the idea crystalized." 10/05/04 11:54
--excerpt from "Ur-Geo-Mimicry" in Architektur von Vorläufer
If you don't own the land between you and the view, then you don't the view. Besides, the ground plane looks pretty open, so access might not be a problem.
sure. yes and yes. everything's possible.
albanian per capita income +,- 6.5k and i have more reasons to believe this hi-end signature development will be restricted to 'elements.' public visual access should not be confused by someone's view from the master bedroom.
To odb: Sorry I missed this post about this project. I like where you are going with all of this, focusing on design and geology. The relationship between architecture and the "geo" is long and complex. There is some material in a book on architecture and the sciences by Antoine Picon. if you read french, you might like work about Viollet Le Duc --Mont Blanc; and there is some stuff in the June issue of Log (#12) on this subject:
MVRDV masterplan in Tirana
what do you think?
There are images at Dezeen:
http://www.dezeen.com/2008/09/03/tirana-rocks-by-mvrdv/
Tirana Rocks: MVRDV wins lakeside competition with dense urban and ecological masterplan
(Rotterdam, September 3rd, 2008) The city of Tirana and an international jury announced MVRDV winner of the competition for the urban masterplan creating a new dense urban neighborhood with a park and public facilities at the shore of Tirana Lake, in the south of the Albanian capital.
Tirana Lake is one of the highly valuable green areas of the city. The project foresees the regeneration of a 20ha site on the north shore of the lake by creating a dense urban neighborhood liberating space for a park, recreational facilities, new public spaces and ecologic interventions.
The cantilevered and leaning buildings allow for a great variety of apartment types, shopping and offices and ‘echo’ the Tirana typology. The stacked and twisted volumes create spectacular public spaces and provide dramatic vistas. Clad in local stones the buildings turn into a series of ‘rocks’, the ‘Tirana Rocks’.
Dense clustering of the program on the lake side allows the site to become part of the chain of parks surrounding the lake. Planting a park of Jacaranda trees will add a new characteristic element to the area and provide natural shade; the tree’s long lasting blue flowers will appear as a ‘blue cloud’. A promenade along the water creates an active social zone that contributes to the idea of a ‘Copa Tirana’.
Edi Rama, the mayor of Tirana who received the 2004 World Mayor Award presented the winning scheme on national television.
The masterplan consists of 225.000m2 housing, 60.000m2 offices, 20.000m2 public buildings, 60.000m2 retail, a hotel of 15.000m2 and 20.000m2 sport and recreational facilities and a car park. Start construction is envisioned for 2010, the total estimated investment is 600 million Euro. The client is a group of Albanian private developers; the project is managed by Ambito Project Management, Madrid, Spain.
MVRDV won the competition from among others Bolles + Wilson, David Chipperfield Architects and Carlos Ferrater.
-ENDS-
I think it is terrible. I generally like MVRD's work but this project seems rather inadequate as a simple mass of stone. I would like to see the types of interstitial spaces these buildings create? I would like to see a little explanation of the rigor and system with which this development was achieved? I hardly feel that the submission handles many "urban" issues and the scale of the whole project very much concerns me. Just my .02 cents worth.
I've been to Tirana. And I worked for these guys about six years ago. Knowing the internal process of the office a little bit, I think there's probably a good amount of data and research that fed into what seems more like a purely intuitive notion of putting "rocks" around this lake. So the images released achieve that classic shock value that MVRDV is great for, and I'm just wondering if we'll get to see more of what odee is asking for in explanation of the system of these dominoes.
I am curious what they mean by the forms "echo[ing] the Tirana typology".
people think gehry is terrible, too
Nick, I am sure you are right, there is more. Right now it's all language and for me, that gets a bit old when you read the same architecture blather over and over.
Generally, I really like MVRD's work having visited several. Hopefully this one will be the same.
i dunno if its good or bad.... i rather focus on the difference of opinion that european and american urbanism have...i mean is notdifferent opinions, is just different ways of understanding cities.... basic example, pedestrian cities vs car/suburbia cities.
as Corbu would say... "the architect is always wrong, real life is always right"
so we would see.... its more about if people embrace and understand the concept they get proposed, not about budget, drawings and aesthetics
has some more images of what looks like MVRDV's candy assortment:
might breathe new life into the otherwise overly monobloc-ed city.
Initial source of inspiration?
lol haribo!!
essentially the project is a speculative development. the typology of the project is about the same everywhere else, nothing new.
if you look at the area tabulations, you will see it is essentially a high priced housing (read condo development) paired with a large shopping mall with all the ecology and typology candy attached. i think the project would be disastrous for the people directly north (closer to reader before the red area) of the project, cutting and blocking their visual and public access forever to the lake, turning and claiming the area as their private lake front. how's that for a great master planning?
if i was in tirana, i'd be asking for a visual corridor to the lake and make sure public access to it is unfettered via deed restriction. project rises like an oppressive block in front of many neighborhoods.
like nick sowers above, i am also curious about "Tirana typology". i hope it is not one of those descriptions of stylizing chaos or visual pollution that highly disciplined societies of the west find 'interesting.'
i think this project is part of a new geo-mimicry movement in architecture, which i think is pretty interesting. i have to say i was pretty struck by mvrdv's proposal for the motor city competition in spain last year and this seems to be in the same vein, although not as interesting. it's hard to tell from the bird's eye perspectives provided.
i really hope the image shown which devolves into mvrdv's typical collage of different building typologies and skins is a joke because to me it's not as powerful as the univalence of the images first published on dezeen.
the architectural analogy of spending 2 hours fixing your hair up in the morning so it looks as if you've just awaken;
orhan...well put: "i hope it is not one of another descriptions of stylizing chaos or visual pollution that highly disciplined societies of the west find 'interesting.'" at first look, that site deserves better...
"Hey, you're blocking my view!
Wow there's alot of archi-babble tonight?
the top 3 are
in third place is "interstitial spaces" by odee
first runner up "stylizing chaos or visual pollution" by Orhan Ayyüce
and the winner is..."a new geo-mimicry" by o d b
I will attempt to say my piece whilst simultaneously crafting a new lexicon of funny architectural words
to be honest at first glance I did gasp at this project, for many reasons beyond the fact that it did not fit into my notion of what "a masterplan is supposed to be" similarly I couldn't make out the architecture in it either. But truth be told MVRDV is very good at that... taking unlike circumstances smushing them together and creating beautiful, sensible architecture with it. the Dutch pavilion had everyone gasping in shock and horror when it was a funny sketch that looked more like fido dido, but by the time they sprinkled their magic, the architecture emerged. I suspect this may one of those times, and we will just have to (like HdM and the Tate) wait and see. Nonetheless I can see the makings of something interesting, that perhaps runs counter to my learned colleague. The context is apparent in the aerial shot of typical blocks scattered about the city, although less like stones/rocks - more like fallen buildings. Also how their proposal aims to give structure to the wildness of the green/park. Perhaps not the moves I would make but it sets up an interesting layering effect from concrete, to grass, to destruction, to water...
Surely, the "mayor of the year" wants to create a Bilbao effect on Tirana. What better than a scheme like this? I have to say though I am more or less happy with the scheme based on limited information.
The level of "critique" at dezeen [which I check on a daily basis and is a great site] is comparable to high school students comparing the hairstyles on America's Next top model. If the comments on a project at dezeen are on the whole good, I am suspicious. If they are condemnatory, I am more likely to approve of the project almost out of spite.
The images on Dezeen do seem to show that alll the development is clustered along the which seems to have a primary and secondary effects.
The primary gives what will probably amount to an exclusive if not legally then spatially, lakeshore access for the development and secondarily to create a bunch of green space at the front of the plot which i am sure has been used to tout how eco they are being, (as Orhan pointed out).
Now i am sure they locals would love a bunch more parkland but i hope they also get visual and spatial access to the lake, which they currently have...
Also. I agree that the initial image of mono color rock like forms is more compelling than any of the others....
It's not geo-mimicry, it's jury-mimicry!
"Hey, let's design a reenactment of this painting."
"Yeah, we'll do it like abstractly, and when other architects see the scheme they'll start reenacting a design jury."
"Brilliant!"
--excerpt from "Scalping Double Theater Tickets" in The Further Adventures of the Broke Baroque Style.
Someone stole some crystal meth, screwed around on form Z for a little while and got "creative."
the next design...
"In September 2001, while seeing a display of quartz crystals (each labeled as to its geographic origin) compiled over 100 years ago, I thought it would be cool if the buildings of any global location started to match the formations of the local quartz. It was after seeing Harz Mountain quartz that the idea crystalized."
10/05/04 11:54
--excerpt from "Ur-Geo-Mimicry" in Architektur von Vorläufer
I don't think this ones geo-mimicry, i think its a bunch of blue foam rectangles lobbed on site.
I also see Toyo Ito's Mikimoto building.
If you don't own the land between you and the view, then you don't the view. Besides, the ground plane looks pretty open, so access might not be a problem.
sure. yes and yes. everything's possible.
albanian per capita income +,- 6.5k and i have more reasons to believe this hi-end signature development will be restricted to 'elements.' public visual access should not be confused by someone's view from the master bedroom.
To odb: Sorry I missed this post about this project. I like where you are going with all of this, focusing on design and geology. The relationship between architecture and the "geo" is long and complex. There is some material in a book on architecture and the sciences by Antoine Picon. if you read french, you might like work about Viollet Le Duc --Mont Blanc; and there is some stuff in the June issue of Log (#12) on this subject:
http://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Sciences-Exchanging-Metaphors-Ponte/dp/1568983654/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220838092&sr=1-1
http://www.anycorp.com/log/log.php?id=23
it looks like someone gave MVRDV a set of froebel blocks but they didn't know what to do with them.
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