[Tirana] Projects & Construction Updates

[IlliricumSacrum]

Nearly 1 million people live in Tirana today, and just 15 years ago there were nearly 300.000. The city expanded so much that the urban master plan of 1989 was useless. The city fell into a chaotic development that venquished all that was beautiful about it. Almost all public places, like parks for example, were occupied by shops and clubs, while along the Lana river contruction of all kinds were raisen. It took a politician with broad vision and a lot of political courage to return the city to an acceptable condition. Right now the city is developing through segmentary urban plans. The most important is the regulatory plan for the city, which is being carried out by the municipality. This plan is estimated at 180 million $. It has 4 main sections:

1- Rehabilitation of all roads and restoration of green spaces within neighbourhouds. This includes primary, secondary and terciary roads. This example from a part of "Artan Lenja" block, in the suburbs, gives clear idea of what this part of the regulatory plan is about:

This is a section of the Artan Lenja block before the intervention of the regulatory plan:

This is what the space management will be after the works in this area are over:

2- The second section of the regulatory plan involves the lengthining of the main boulevard "Deshmoret e Kombit" with 2km, thus doubling its size. The current boulevard links Mother Teresa square with the train station. The last extremity will move into the Tirana river. Tirana river on the other hand will have a concrete profile similiar to the one Lana river has. The image below shows the extension of the boulevard. Green is the actual boulevard, while in red the new section the will be constructed is shown. The new extension goes through a low developed area, and it is thought that this move will bring more constructers to build commercial and service centers there.

3- The third section is about the construction of the big outer city ring, linking Tirana-Durres highway, with the Tirana-Elbasan highway which will be constructed soon by private investors. This is supposed to reduce traffic within the city itself. Other rings will be constructed, but this is the most important one.

4- The third section involves the construction of two tram routes. The first going through the main boulevard and the second following the Lana and Tirana rivers perimeter as shown on the map. Red is route one and yellow is route 2.

The second most important development is the City Center Master Plan designed by Architecture Studio, which addresses mainly areas around the main boulevard. The images below show parts from this plan and some recent project approvals for buildings that are part of it, including 3 of the 10 85m tower that will be built.

These renders show parts from the regulatory plan:

Skanderbeg Square:



Avni Rustemi square:



The first tower to get approval was "Eyes of Tirana", 85m (UC):



The second tower to get approval was "TID Tower", 85m (UC):



The third tower to get approval was "Torre Archea":

After a careful analysis of the Master Plan for the city center, I realized that Gener Tower, "the imposter", a building of 21 floors is part of it. We have been speculating on its facade and since there is only one building so tall to justify the facade of Polychromic Tower, we think this its facade:

The master plan includes a renovation of Tirana International Hotel and the construction of a twin building, 15 floors, parallel to it, within the premises of the National Museum. The renovation projects has been designed by Architecture Studio:

Architecture Studio also designed the construction of another building in central Tirana, located where Millenium film theatre used to be. Unfortunately the onyl render we have is from a newpaper article:

MVRDV studio designed a multifunctional building located in Toptani square. The innovative design and its location will make this building stand out in the city:



On the other hand, a separate study has been carried for the development of a 3700ha (37km²) area in the outskirts of Tirana. This is what the "Urban and enviromental study of Selitë, Sauk, Farkë, Lundë, Mullet e Petrelë (areas around Tirana) " includes:

- A new domestic airport for Tirana to serve general aviation traffic

- A golf course.

- The land used for construction will be 10-20%, living a lot of the green spaces.

- The residential buildings will include:

1) Construction of social buildings (4-5 floors) , with low-cost appartments to address housing problems for new families. The area used for this purpose will be 100ha (1 km²).

2) Construction of residential area with villas of 2-3 floors. The area used for this purpose will be 15ha (150.000m²)

- The land will be used as below:

1) Residential purposes: 1750ha (17,5 km²)

2) Social and recreational purposes: 440ha (4,4km²)

3) Streets, sidewalks, parking lots: 370ha (3,7km²)

4) New vegetation, a new zoo and botanic garden, as well sport facilities: 580ha (5,8km²)

5) Industrial and agricultural production facilities: 160ha (1,6km²)

6) Lakes, water basins and rivers: 400ha (4km²).

[me rrufsh bolet]

you're the man illiricum!

[jumpuponit]

You forgot the Bussiness Center in Toptani st.

That is a big project too.

[13]

Great presentation.

I like the "greenifying" of Tirana.

[3tmk]

what happened to the IIIrd thread? It's still far away from the 500th post, is there a need for a new one?

[lakerdar123]

you have to talk to Ilir for that.

[Illyrian]

Impressive! I cant wait to go to Tirana this summer.

[IlliricumSacrum]

Originally Posted by 3tmk

what happened to the IIIrd thread? It's still far away from the 500th post, is there a need for a new one?

Yeah I know. The problem is that the first page of that thread missed a lot of information, so did the thread in general. I opened this so that we have a better understanding of whats going on in general. Previous threads were mainly focused on the city center master plan and they did not cover other areas of the city. I am still working on the first post, to fully introduce the regulatory plan. I am working with GE in order to create maps for the projects and have better visual information.

[IlliricumSacrum]

Details of Western and Southern City Ring (WR, SR) and the Tirana-Elbasan Highway (TREL).

Western Ring

WR is 6-6,5km long and links the Kamza Turn (Tirana-Durres HW entryway from Tirana), which is the access point of all vehicles coming from the north to the capital and many transit through the capital to south eastern destinations.

Southern Ring

SR is 7,5km long. It links Vaqarr, southern extremity of WR, with Farka Bridge, the entryway to Tirana-Elbasa HW (TREL). This is meant to move all in city transits to south eastern Albania, outside the city.

Tirana-Elbasan Highway

TREL is 35,2-35,8 km long. It is built through a rural area. 65% of expropriations are public (state) property. 35% of expropriations involve private land. Expropriations are however minimal. TREL is shorter then the current Tirana-Elbasan road, and has a a track speed at least 3 times faster.

A segment of TREL in perspective view shows how TREL relates to geographical features along its trace:

[IlliricumSacrum]

[City Center Master Plan]

The image below shows the current condition of Mother Teresa Square and its transformation as result of the implementation of the master plan:

[Gështenja]

Wow amazing

[IlliricumSacrum]

Regarding that "West Side" thing, here are the new projects/buildings there:

1- Condor Building it made of four buildings with a shared base of 9 floors each. First 3 floors are intended for shops.













2- Another building, on the other side of the road from Condor, has finished construction:





3- "Baja Building" is also on the final construction stages and is one of the most beautiful buildings in the area:



4- These tow other buildings are also concluding counstruction works:





This is a view over the sidewalk there:



I will post more projects I found around when I get to have some time to spend uploading them online.

[DanMs]

Wow thats some nice apartment blocks

Good Job Illiricum

I like this one

[thebackdoorman]

Tirana is adding a few quite horrendous buildings. I like the one Danms likes but still... By the way, is there any information on the Goldi Complex, it looked quite major, and Tirana Gallery (that is probably not the right name but I think it was the name on the drawing, a building having a combination of traditional and glass facade). Wish I was a developer/mayor/whatever, I have some pretty brilliant ideas.

[IlliricumSacrum]

Baja is a vetry nice building indeed. However the best of them is Condor, despite people do not get the right impression with those poor renders. I have seen it from all sides and is really unique. The facade will look awsome when it ends and the general structure is very beautiful. Lets not forget these are at least 2.5km form the center. We had a pic of Baja when the facade was not built yet, and the pic hardly gave the impression that it would change to this. One important thing to notice in Baja and Condor is that facades are not painted but composed with tiles and glass.

[liburni]

Great job man!

I like these new buildings!

[MIMICA]

Great pictures IS! I can't wait to see the next set of pictures.

[IlliricumSacrum]

This is a project u/c near location of Condor and Baja:



3-7-9 storeys. I have quite some of projects of this height so just tell me if you are intereseted to see them so I don't spend a lot of time uploading stuff people are not interested in.

[lakerdar123]

i think we are all interested. please post all that you have. us guys 10 000 km away don't know whats going on there

[genci888]

Yeah Illiricum, of course we are interested (at least I am).