Via decision no. 406, dated July 4, the government has approved the transferral of ownership of the 25 thousand square feet area where the Republican Guard is currently located to the Tirana municipality, with the purpose of conducting the project “For the Entrance of the Park.” This decision clears the way for the execution of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s old project foreseeing the construction of skyscrapers in the Artificial Lake Park.
In spring 2015, the Rama government opened the competition for the Artificial Lake Park Entrance construction project. Nine Albanian and foreign studios presented their proposals. These projects underwent the assessment of a jury made up of nine architecture experts in July.
However, once it was made public that the government aimed to build in one of the most important areas of the park, the citizens revolted. Public pressure forced the government to postpone the competition to September.
Suddenly, in December 2015, Tirana mayor Erion Veliaj revealed that the government had decided, in the meantime, and hidden from public attention, on a construction plan. During a TV interview in December 2015, Veliaj declared that he had selected a project for the park entrance, and it contained a single building.
This was the project proposed by the consortium Thomas Reynaud/BuildingBuilding, UHO, Elias Guenoun, David Levain, Simon Boudvin, VPEAS, and Bollinger+Grohmann, which included a single public service center at the edge of the Lake Park and several interventions to safeguard the integrity of the lake park.
However, with the construction of the playground, designed by Bolles+Wilson, the vision of the winning project – namely to retain the integrity of the Lake Park by moving all construction to its edges – has been compromised. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the project for which the government now transferred land to the Municipality of Tirana will indeed be winning project of the competition from 2015.
