Less than a month after an open letter from Albanian artists and activists pleaded with the international art community to stop “artwashing” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Tirana mayor Erion Veliaj is giddily introduced as a guest speaker of “extraordinary success” in an online session of the Urban Future Conference. Europe’s “largest event for sustainable
Faith No More In 2015, Atelier Albania held a competition for the so-called “Faith Park,” a brain child of Prime Minister Edi Rama who envisioned the surroundings of the Pyramid in the center of Tirana as follows: “It seemed appropriate today to convey to you the idea of building in Tirana, soon The Park of
It is not only Danish architect Bjarke Ingels who has cashed in on his previous engagements with Prime Minister Edi Rama when he was still Mayor of Tirana, and who has now become an international propagandist for the Rama government. Recently also Dutch architect Winy Maas of MVRDV has come out as an enthusiastic supporter,
The Tirana municipality has awarded €2.5 million to Albstar shpk, the company that is currently constructing the new national stadium, for the construction of an underground parking beneath the Italia Square, located in front of the stadium. The construction project will be financed entirely by the municipality. The tender winner was announced on December 18,
The majority of the foreign architects Prime Minister Edi Rama surrounds himself with have been previously embroiled in corruption, legal infraction, and copyright violation scandals. It seems their penalties and scandals in their respective countries amounted to little hindrance for Rama’s cooperation with them – indeed, it is likely, that they were chosen precisely on
In a Facebook post, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced this morning that the government received an “official request” to construct the Vlora airport in southern Albania. He also announced that construction work will start in June this year. According to Ora News, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy today confirmed that “the offer has been presented
Exit.al | The Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy has granted the tender for a feasibility study of “an airport in the south of the country” to the company Seed Consulting shpk. Even though the winner was already known on March 6, 2017, the ministry has waited 7 months before publishing it Bulletin of the Public Procurement Agency. At
The 35-storey tower behind International Hotel Tirana, whose construction work will soon commence, will not only be used as an extension of the hotel but also as shopping center. Originally, the tender documents stated that the new building would only be used as an extension, a claim that was difficult to believe as the extension
Even though the international experts of the International Monitoring Operation (ONM) have arrived in Tirana and the vetting of judges and prosecutors can start “any moment” now, the actual building were the vetting organs – the Independent Qualification Commission (KPK), the Appeals College (KA), the Public Commissioners – and their staff are supposed to do their work
During the electoral campaign of 2015, Mayor Erion Veliaj promised that he would put a halt to the distribution of clientelist building permits, but two long years later it seems that the building permit business is as booming for Veliaj as it was for his predecessors. A record number of new buildings are being planned