NEW MUNICIPALITY BUILDING TIRANA: A ZERO EMISSIONS HYBRID LANDSCAPE

The new Municipality Building of Tirana is the first zero-emissions building of Albania and aims to serve as a new model for sustainable developments and as a new symbol for an open, transparent, and accessible municipal administration. It is formed by two intertwined volumes, articulated around a central public space, that generate a hybrid landscape inspired by the nature of Tirana province. This hybrid landscape is formed by the following elements:

TUJANI BUILDING

Tujani Building is a vertical visual landmark inspired by the distinctive silhouette of Tujani Peak. It accommodates the most public and representative functions including Tirana Info Center, conference halls, Tirana Council Hall and Tirana City Museum.

TIRANA MOUNTAINS

Tirana Mountains is a looped terrace building articulated around Tujani Building that houses municipal offices for 1380 employees. The offices are designed as highly efficient and flexible spaces, which allows to implement many different spatial configurations and to re-arrange them quickly and economically when required. The building has a transparent and accessible ground floor that houses a canteen for employers and restaurants open towards the public space of the new boulevard of Tirana.

PUBLIC ROOF-PARK OVER TIRANA MOUNTAINS

Tirana Mountains is covered with a green and public roof-park that promotes the interaction between the institution and the citizens, symbolizing the environmental engagement of the municipality of Tirana.

The public roof-park is equipped with resting areas, viewing platforms and open-air auditoriums for gathering. It is divided into 24 connected terraces that symbolize the 24 municipal administrative divisions. They work as rooms of an open-air museum that provides information about the geography, nature, history, and culture of each administrative unit.

The green roof has en environmental role saving energy, combating the urban heat island effect, reducing stormwater runoff, providing a natural habitat for urban wilderness, filtering pollutants and absorbing carbon dioxide out of the air. The roof gardens reduce organic waste by producing compost, reuse rainwater for irrigation, and produce food with top roof urban farms. The roof-park also produces renewable energy with a top canopy made of solar panels.

TIRANA VALLEY

The volumes of Tujani Peak and Tirana Mountains are articulated around a central public space that represents the Plain of Tirana where the city is located surrounded by a mountain chain. This space is fragmented into several platforms with green areas that are used as outdoor spaces connected to some areas of the building such as meeting rooms, library, cantine, public cafés and restaurants.

Tirana Valley is accessible from the public plaza where Bovilla Fountain is located, a sculptural fountain inspired by the water reservoir of the city that has a visual function producing a mirror effect in Tujani building, and an environmental role by cooling the air in summer.

ZERO-EMISSIONS BUILDING

The new municipality building is a very efficient building that combines passive and active systems with the use of solar and geothermal energy. It provides a model for zero-emissions building capable of obtaining the LEED-zero certificate including Zero energy, Zero water, and Zero waste.