TID Tower Tirana building, Albania architecture, 51N4E architects info, Property news

TID Tower Tirana : Albanian Building

Mies van der Rohe 2017 Awards: Contemporary Skyscraper Development design by 51N4E architects

2 Jan 2017

Design: 51N4E architects

Shortlisted for Mies van der Rohe 2017 Awards

Mies van der Rohe 2017 Award Nominations

The tower can be seen from the main boulevard entering the city in Albania. Seen from that angle, the tower complements the most important monuments of Tirana: the Skanderbeg statue, the oldest mosque, the clock tower and – at the foot of the tower – a memorial tomb for the city’s founder Suleiman Pasha.

Photos © Stefano Graziani

TID Tower

Aware of this precarious historical line-up, the tower is designed as a monolith, avoiding the image of the modern glass tower. Starting from an ellipse and ending as a rectangle, the building has a simple shape which fully captures the Mediterranean light of Tirana and generates a wide range of unexpected shadows. It does not symbolize anything but instead highlights an environmental – and as such, cultural – condition.

On the ground floor, the building is designed as a constellation of 3 singular buildings: the tower of 85 m height coming down to the ground, a 5 storey glass building with a cantilevering roof that creates a public open air galleria; and a concrete building with a hollowed out quarter dome, embracing the tomb of Suleiman Pasha.

Together, these buildings generate a diverse environment, enhancing the most durable quality of any Mediterranean city: its public space.

TID Tower Albania – Building Information

Name of work in English: TID Tower
Name of work in original language: HOTEL PLAZA TIRANA
Placement: Nominee
Prize year: 2017
Location: Tirana, Albania
Year completed: 2016 (Year began 2007)
Studios: 51N4E

Collaborators
Structural engineering: Ney & Partners, Helidon Kokona
Façades: Van Santen & associates
Acoustical: Sokol Dervishi
Fire consulting: FPC
Climatisation: Cenergie
Design: Objects
Projects Interiors: ALICICEK, Alesssandro Dolci, Cipiuelle

Total area: 4.240
Usable floor area: 46.000
Cost: 50.000.000 €
Client: Tirana International Development
Client Type: private
Map: LatLng: (41.3278662, 19.820212699999956)

24 Jun 2009

TID Tower Tirana

TID Tower, Tirana

Design: 51N4E architects

The tower is part of the ambitious new master plan for the city, which converges around ten iconographic towers. The main program of the TID Tower consists housing program. Offices, shopping and restaurant facilities are located in the base. At the top of the building a panorama restaurant.

Our first investigation was to resolve the dilemma of elegance – a clear ambition stated in the master plan – and square meters. We propose a volume for the TID Tower based on a super ellipse: starting as an ellipse and ending as a rectangle. The subtle transition between these two basic shapes makes a tower which fully captures the Mediterranean light of Tirana, and creates ever changing shadows.

The main views towards the site from the boulevards entering the centre are diagonal, showing the tower in its most dramatic angle. From the top corners the facade slopes 6 m inwards, resulting in a gentle cantilever. Seen from Kavajes Boulevard, the grand shape of the tower gracefully complements the urban ensemble consisting of the mosque, the clock tower and the cultural palace.

The specific position of the building in the cityscape demands for a facade that works on two scales: on an urban scale and on a private scale. The façade is developed as one system, emphasizing the tower as a whole, while allowing for diversity and variation when zooming in. It becomes a mediator between the public and private. The facade generates diverse conditions in response to the inside and outside environment.

The apartments are organized around a functional core. Due to the play of the paneling of the façade, each room gets filtered views and (most importantly) shadow. Depending on where one stands/sits/lies in the apartment the views are focused on the city scape (downwards view) or the sky (upwards view).

To develop a high-rise for Tirana is to deal with the reality of Tirana. Merely importing models that already have been established will not do the trick. The opportunity that the specific reality of Tirana offers is to construct a building that would be unimaginable in Europe. To achieve this goal, means setting up a process. The final building will never look like we’ve initially envisaged it: it will absorb all influences and change accordingly, to become in the end truly site-specific.

Thinking outside the box, this high-rise project can turn things upside down: not importing European standards, but making a real contribution from Tirana to Europe instead.

TID Tower Tirana – Building Information

Location: Tirana
Architect: 51N4E
Partner: Atelier 4
Design team: Johan Anrys, Freek Persyn, Peter Swinnen, Jeroen Beerten, Bob De Wispelaere, Aglaia De Mulder, Konstantinos Pantazis
Consultant: Van Santen & associés (facade) – Ney & partners
(structure) – Cenergie (climate control)
Structural Engineer: Helidon Kokona

Program: offices – residential – commercial – restaurants – car park
Client: Tirana International Development
Site: 4.240 m²
Built surface: 37.000 m²

TID Tower Tirana images / information from 51N4E architects 240609

TID Tower design : 51N4E architects

Location: Tirana, Albania, southeastern Europe

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