New Bazaar in Tirana, Restoration and Revitalization by Atelier 4; Albania

The New Bazaar, located close to the central square of the city is one of the traditional areas of Tirana. It represented one of Tirana’s most iconic symbols of traditional urban life. The area housed 15 cultural heritage buildings, initially hidden under a generally unappealing commercial space.

For years the marketplace was susceptible to erosion, confiscation of public property, the ghettoization of residential areas, the loss of historical values and aesthetic degradation leading to the destruction of the urban tissue up to the point of potential loss of the city’s identity. The intervention has gone through a multi-dimensional dialogue, much wider than a single investment in an urban context. It is about a dialogue between the past and the present, old and new, a dialogue between business and the citizens, a representation of historical conversation of all eras.

Nowadays, the New Bazaar has been transformed into a pedestrian area, a lively shopping, eating and night-life space and a perfect tourism destination.

What makes this project one-of-a-kind?
“Humanism”
Architecture must be history, poetry, art, music, parenthood, love, everything.

Text provided by the architects.