What Is Albania Building Towards?
Albania is impossible to ignore right now. It’s a country building at a speed that invites both admiration and a certain amount of caution.
I have been following Albania build for a while now, and I still find it hard to fully wrap my head around the pace of it. What strikes me most isn’t just the volume of construction, but how varied it is. Communist-era monuments are being reworked into places of public life, dense residential towers keep climbing, and quieter, more careful projects, a mountain retreat, a church, a school, sit alongside all of it.
Within this fast-moving landscape, this Focus turns to the architects actually shaping it from within: a selection of projects by young, emerging and already established Albanian studios making a substantial contribution to the country’s built environment. Their work spans coastal hospitality and dense urban infill, mountain retreats and public schools, a reconstructed monument and a newly built church: different scales and programmes, but a shared attentiveness to place, context and the people who will use these spaces daily. Taken together, they suggest an architectural culture that is absorbing rapid growth without losing sight of identity, memory and long-term value.
Tanja,
Editor
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Each BIG SEE Focus presents a curated selection of the best recent architectural and design projects from a selected country, completed or launched in the past year. This selection reveals depth of thinking, sensitivity to context, and the capacity to shift perspectives. Focus is not just a showcase, but a curatorial responsibility to highlight works that propose ideas, engage cultural complexity with clarity, and offer more than aesthetics.
Featured projects
Platinum Residence
A7 Design Studio
Red Hill
ANK Architecture
Naraç Church
ArkPro Studio Albania
Corner 379
ARTECH Studio
Angela Merkel School
Commonsense Studio
Partizani High School
Loft Architects
The Pyramid of Tirana
iRI Architecture & MVRDV
Mountain of Houses
Tharm Architects
Avanel Signature Hotel
Zifle Architects
Selection
Selection
Editorial: Precision, Craft, and New Perspectives
The architectural selection from Croatia points to an intense and thoughtful revitalisation of the built environment. In parallel, the design selection reveals a clear focus on purpose, refinement, and long term value, from furniture and marine design to new educational tools.
The architectural projects reflect a confident regional momentum, where innovation, context, and long term value are increasingly aligned. They show a culture willing to build on what already exists, adding new layers with precision and without overwhelming the character of place.
This year’s design works, though varied, share a disciplined approach to function and materials. One reimagines the lounge chair as a quietly memorable sculptural piece. Another, from a family-led boat manufacturer, fuses craftsmanship and engineering into elegant, practical vessels. The third, by a tech-focused team, reframes FPV learning through a well-designed educational product that fills a clear market gap.
Instead of forming one cohesive aesthetic direction, these projects illustrate the range of contemporary Croatian design, connected more by intent and clarity than by any stylistic thread. Taken together, they reveal a landscape where tradition, industry, and new entrepreneurial thinking meet in a confident and forward looking way.
Tanja,
Editor
—
Each BIG SEE Focus presents a curated selection of the best recent architectural and design projects from a selected country, completed or launched in the past year. This selection reveals depth of thinking, sensitivity to context, and the capacity to shift perspectives. Focus is not just a showcase, but a curatorial responsibility to highlight works that propose ideas, engage cultural complexity with clarity, and offer more than aesthetics.
Editor
Tanja Završki,
Curator & Editor
M: +386 64 293 441
E: tanja@bigsee.eu