One Tower, Tirana Mixed-Use Building Project, Albanian Architecture, Images
One Tower in Tirana
Offices and Apartment Development in Albania – design by MVRDV
10 Nov 2019
One Tower
Architects: MVRDV
Location: Tirana, Albania

MVRDV has begun construction on Downtown One Tower, a 140-metre-tall mixed-use skyscraper in Tirana that will become Albania?s tallest building. The most striking element of the 37-storey tower is its relief of cantilevered houses and offices, which form a pixelated ?map? of Albania, each representing a town or city, turning this building into an icon in the heart of Tirana, Albania. Completion of the building, which was designed for developer Kastrati Construction, is expected in 2024.

Downtown One is envisioned as an expression celebrating the progress of Albania, located in central Tirana on the Bajram Curri Boulevard, to the south of the Lana River. On its principle façades, the 140-metre rectilinear tower features a series of cantilevered houses and offices, forming a relief pattern on the building?s surface. Every house or office represents a village or town, so that when viewed from a distance, these cantilevers form an abstracted map of Albania.
The importance of the cantilevers is not only iconographic; for occupants of the building, the projecting bay windows offer spectacular panoramic views of the city and the mountains, while the terraces created enable communication and connection between residents to give the feeling of a vertic...