"We want love stories between architects and Albania" says prime minister Edi Rama

Albania's prime minister Edi Rama explains why he is paying so much attention to architecture in this exclusive interview.

The small Balkan nation is currently an unlikely hotbed of statement architecture – with major projects being delivered by big-name international studios including MVRDV, BIG and Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura.

"An architecture festival is more important than a political summit"

Speaking to Dezeen from his office in Tirana, Rama expressed his belief in the power of architecture to make positive change in Albania.

"I am a big believer in architecture and the power of architecture to influence the way we live," he said.

"I think that for a country like Albania, good architecture is an uplifting presence – it's a source of extra energy for the society and for the way we envisage our future."

Unusually for a world leader, Rama has a particular interest in architecture. He reveals himself to be a regular Dezeen reader, having used it to discover architects currently working in Albania, and recently hosted the inaugural edition of the Bread & Heart architecture festival in Tirana.

"To me, an architecture festival is more important than a political summit," he told Dezeen. "It is a celebration of something that is absolutely about everything else."

Rama said he contributed to the festival because he believes architects should have a greater role in the development of cities and countries, voicing regret at the profession's waning influence at the highest levels of politics.

"Architecture, which has been very important in the walk of life of the world for centuries, doesn't anymore have the place it used to in the affairs of countries, in the affairs of country leaders," said Rama.

"This is a pity, because architecture can help a lot," he continued. "If it's not good, architecture can influence badly."

"For thousands of years architects were in the same space of kings and others [rulers], so it was part of the whole idea of building, or developing a country – to work with architects, to listen to them, to understand them."

"I was very shocked to experience the pyramid in Louvre"

Rama has been prime minister of Albania for the past 13 years and was previously mayor of Tirana. He initiated the city's ongoing transformation during his time as mayor with the demolition of numerous informal developments.

This period, along with his experience discovering international architecture after the fall of communism in Albania in 1990, had a major impact on his view of architecture.

"Being the mayor and having to go through a very, very infernal period of the city, demolishing more than 10,000 illegal buildings and trying to understand what to do with the rest, I realised that good architecture could change the direction in many ways," he said.

"Not just how we build, but how we think about our common life, our common place and the future in our common country."

"I grew up and practically half of my life passed under a regime that isolated us from the rest of the world, where architecture was just functionalism," continued Rama.

"And then I saw the world and I was, for example, very shocked to experience the pyramid in Louvre – this co-existence of two totally different eras and different architects, and different ways of understanding architecture in one space."

Several radical high-rises are currently under construction in the Albanian capital, designed by some of the world's best known architecture studios including MVRDV, Stefano Boeri Architetti, OMA and Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura.

Rama wants to ensure that the architecture created in the current wave of development is unique to Albania.

"When it comes to the identity, we try to tell them that we want buildings that are related to the intelligence of the territory," he said.

"We don't want the generic architecture or the global architecture, we don't want to have beautiful buildings that belong simply to the world and not at all to us. We want buildings that belong to us and the world," he continued.

"We don't want stars falling from the sky and becoming monuments. We want love stories between architects and Albania."

"There are buildings in Albania that you cannot imagine in Rome or Paris"

Some of the buildings under development very directly reference the country, such as the Skanderbeg Building, which is based on the head of Albania's national hero, and the Downtown One Tirana, which features a pixelated map of the country on its facade.

Rama appears impressed by the way that international architects have embraced the idea of creating interesting buildings that are informed by Albania and its recent history, marked by the fall of communism into a highly uncontrolled economy during the 1990s.

"The country has changed from being very isolated, brutally organised, with no freedom and a totally linear, ultra-functionalist, not-at-all-open-to-creativity architecture, to a country that suddenly became the platform of illegal interventions all over the place," he said.

"And this is the material that the international architects work with, so credit to them, they have somehow respected it as the intelligence of the ground," he continued.

"So the playful architecture – as you called it – comes out of that. And yes, we should be happy that there are buildings in Albania that on one hand are eligible for your publication, and on the other hand you cannot imagine in Rome or Paris or Amsterdam."

"Tirana is not the new Dubai"

According to Rama, he has had to directly explain to developers and architects what he is trying to achieve by developing Tirana. He described one piece of advice given to a prominent architect.

"I saw the building, and I said, 'listen, it's a beautiful building, but there's a problem, it can't be built here – it should be built in Dubai'," said Rama.

"And the guy said, 'but Tirana is the new Dubai?' I said, 'no, Tirana is not the new Dubai. Tirana is Tirana'," he continued.

"[I said to the architect] Come and talk to the mountain, listen to the river, try to understand what the earth is whispering to you, look at the trees, look at the people, eat some things, drink something, and let's see what will happen – so this is the spirit."

The rapid development and numerous unusual-looking buildings in Tirana has drawn some negative attention. But Rama dismissed this as "bullshit".

"Because the impact is very strong, there is a lot of bullshit in the mainstream media internationally, asking about what is behind this, how are they built, money laundering, criminality – all this crazy shit," he said.

"And this is hurtful, because the impact is very strong."

"These people that make these comments are popcorn producers," he added. "They just make popcorn for the people who go to the movie, and the day after what remains is the movie, not the popcorn."

"It doesn't matter, because the popcorn is swallowed and digested while the while the buildings will be there for eternity, I hope. So who cares about the popcorn?"

"In 10 years we'll have our own star"

Rama is clearly proud of the number of internationally renowned architects currently working in his country. He describes them as "the arch army of Albania".

"We have a big part of the cream of architects of today, and it's really very touching, it's emotional, it's really strong to see names that approach us – names that, until not many years ago, we would never imagine to see around," he said.

"They want to work with us and they want to be part of this experience," he continued. "They want to be part of what we now have baptised the arch army of Albania."

"So we have an army, an army of great minds, of hard workers, of so much experience."

He believes that so many international architects working in the country will influence the next generation of Albanian-born architects, and will lead to the rise of an Albania starchitect.

"I think we have the biggest open-air university of architecture, because all the local architects, the young architects, they work with these guys, they have these experiences," he said.

"So I believe that in 10 years we'll have our own star. We'll have our Bjarke [Ingels] in 10 years. Why not?"

The top photo is by Giannis Papanikos via Shutterstock.

Dezeen In Depth

If you enjoy reading Dezeen's interviews, opinions and features, subscribe to Dezeen In Depth. Sent on the last Friday of each month, this newsletter provides a single place to read about the design and architecture stories behind the headlines.

The post "We want love stories between architects and Albania" says prime minister Edi Rama appeared first on Dezeen.