The transformation of an aging brutalist monument to communism into a new tech education center geared toward teenagers in the capital city of Albania has been officially inaugurated following a three-and-a-half-year revitalization effort led by MVRDV.

The project remade the 127,000-square-foot Pyramid of Tirana, first established as a museum dedicated to the legacy of dictator Enver Hoxha in 1988, into the centerpiece of a new cultural hub and park space located in the heart of the city. 

Brightly-colored boxes are stacked within, around, and on top of the original structure, providing areas for education and events programming, while the addition of outdoor steps to its sloping beams creates intriguing new public space possibilities for visitors. Some see it as a testament to the country’s dogged ability to overcome the collective memory of the Hoxha regime. MVRDV hopes it will turn into a “carrier” for the cultural experiences of the next generation of Albanians. 

By turns a nightclub, conference center, broadcasting hub, and NATO command post during the 1999 Kosovo War, the once hermetically-sealed structure has been opened up thanks to an interior intervention that left in its place a well-lit single volume filled with biophilic elements. MVRDV says the project aligns with many core tenets of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the incorporation of circular economy principles (which are exemplified in the reuse of original facade stone tiling in the concrete mix of the new steps). Accessibility to the site was also vastly improved by the project overall, including an elevator to the top of the pyramid on the building's western side.

“Working on a brutalist monument like the Pyramid is a dream,” MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas said, speaking of the opportunity to design a lynchpin for a new direction in Albanian society. 

“It is striking and interesting to see how the country struggled with the future of the building, which on one hand is a controversial chapter in the country’s history, and on the other hand has already been partly reclaimed by the residents of Tirana,” he continued. “I immediately saw its potential, and that it should be possible to make it even more of a ‘people's monument’ instead of demolishing it. The challenging part is to create a new relationship between the building and its surroundings. I am confident our design establishes this. I am looking forward to seeing young people and for the first time older people climbing the steps to the rooftop!”

The project was realized at a reported cost of $22 million, financed by the state and local government with help from the Albanian-American Development Foundation (or AADF). 

Elsewhere in Europe, MVRDV is working on another adaptive reuse project for the Dutch Expo 2000 Pavilion in Hannover, Germany. Another whole block transformation of a historic 1974 shopping center in Paris' Montparnasse quarter was completed in November of last year.