Albania’s capital city will soon get a new mountain in the form of Mount Tirana, a skyscraper finished in stone and dotted with living plants. Danish architecture firm CEBRA won the competition to design the new landmark in the heart of the city, which will be Albania’s tallest building at 606 feet when complete. It will be built using locally sourced materials and native plants to minimize its carbon footprint, and the spacious terraces on its “slopes” will reduce the need for air conditioning.

Mount Tirana takes inspiration from Albania’s distinctive mountains, celebrating the national identity and cultural heritage of the country on Southwestern Europe’s Balkan Peninsula. Its 70,000-square-foot interior will include housing, a boutique hotel, offices, a business area, commercial facilities, restaurants, cafés, and parking facilities. The ground floor, connected to adjacent parklands, will act as one big “urban living room” for the city. Mount Tirana is set within the city’s core downtown area close to the National Theater of Opera and Ballet of Albania and the National Historical Museum.
“Mountains are one of nature’s most impressive features,” said Mikkel Frost, Founding Partner and Architect at CEBRA. “Everlasting, awe-inspiring, and beautiful, they are the original landmarks. By using the mountains of Albania as our main source of inspiration, we tap into the local history, the cul...