TID Tower Tirana Building, Albania Architecture, 51N4E architects, Info, Property, News
TID Tower, Tirana : Albanian Building
Mies van der Rohe 2017 Awards: Contemporary Skyscraper Development – design by 51N4E architects
2 Jan 2017
TID Tower
Design: 51N4E architects
Shortlisted for Mies van der Rohe 2017 Awards
Mies van der Rohe 2017 Award Nominations
The tower can be seen from the main boulevard entering the city. Seen from that angle, the tower complements the most important monuments of Tirana: the Skanderbeg statue, the oldest mosque, the clock tower and – at the foot of the tower – a memorial tomb for the city?s founder Suleiman Pasha.
Photos © Stefano Graziani

Aware of this precarious historical line-up, the tower is designed as a monolith, avoiding the image of the modern glass tower. Starting from an ellipse and ending as a rectangle, the building has a simple shape which fully captures the Mediterranean light of Tirana and generates a wide range of unexpected shadows. It does not symbolize anything but instead highlights an environmental ? and as such, cultural – condition.
On the ground floor, the building is designed as a constellation of 3 singular buildings: the tower of 85 m height coming down to the ground, a 5 storey glass building with a cantilevering roof that creates a public open air galleria; and a concrete building with a hollowed out quarter dome, embracing the tomb of Suleiman Pasha.
Together, these buildings generate a d...