'the new parliamentary complex of the republic of albania' by coop himmelb(l)au in tirana, albania
all images courtesy coop himmelb(l)au


vienna-based office coop himmelb(l)au has won the competition to design
'the new parliamentary complex of the republic of albania' in the capital city of tirana.
the 28,000 m2 project will be the first building by the internationally-recognized
practice in albania.

situated along the compositional axis of the city, the design aims to provide a strong
urban statement as the newest addition to tirana's urban fabric. expressing a decidedly
contemporary architectural character, the building serves as a visual landmark for
the locals as well as a bold representation of the albanian republic's  future political center.



overall view


'our design for the new parliament in tirana, albania, stands for the transparency
of democracy,' says wolf d. prix, design principal and CEO of coop himmelb(l)au.
incorporating a number of different building elements, the holistic design aims to
include fundamental democratic values such as openness, transparency and
public co-determination.



view of the parliamentary hall from the public roof


at the core of the center, the parliamentary hall is accommodated by a glazed cone
that peeks over the office building, which is wrapped in a curtain-like exterior skin
made from panels of perforated steel. a wide public stair at the base of the building
leads the public to the landscaped roof of the plinth building, serving as an expansive
elevated plaza where views into the parliamentary hall are established. the main entrance
to the complex is through a solid conic form that acts as the counterpart to the transparent
parliamentary hall.



interior view of the parliamentary hall


in order to provide optimal environmental conditions in an energy efficient manner,
a number of passive concepts are incorporated into the final design of the building:
the careful configuration of the forms reduce the use of fossil fuel while the dynamic
second skin of the office building drastically improves the building's performance
related to daylight intake, views, solar control, glare and noise protection,
thermal insulation and natural ventilation.



model



project info:

client: the republic of albania, the parliament
site area: 28,000 m2
gross floor area: 38,650 m2
footprint: 13,100 m2
height: 36 m, 50 m (highest point)
length: 88 m, 70 m (office building)
width: 60 m, 70 m (office buiding)

design principal: wolf d. prix
design partner: karolin schmidbaur
senior project partner: michael volk
project partner: hartmut hank
project architect: friedrich hähle
design architects: ivana jug, steven ma
project team: anne arildsen, peregrine buckler, veronika janovska, kadri kerge, heimo matt,
anais méon, valerie messini, ismet qorrolli, jeroen roosen, tamara soto bailon, xinyu wan
3d visualization: steven ma, cynthia sanchez-morales
graphic: thomas hindelang, jan rancke, anja sorger
photography: markus pillhofer
model building: sebastian buchta, tyler bornstein, paul hoszowski, la chi nam,
morteza farhadian dehkordi, tichen lu, magnus möschel
animation: isochrom

structural engineering: B+G ingenieure, bollinger grohmann schneider ZT-GmbH, vienna, austria
energy design: prof. brian cody, berlin, germany