Herzog & de Meuron to transform Albania’s Palace of Congresses
Herzog & de Meuron wins the international competition to transform Tirana’s Palace of Congresses, proposing a careful revitalization of the Albanian capital’s landmark cultural venue alongside a new mixed-use tower and public landscape.
The winning scheme adopts a restrained approach that preserves the identity of the Palace of Congresses while strengthening its relationship with the city. Originally conceived as an innovative building of its era, the complex remains a significant architectural and historical witness to Albania’s recent past. Herzog & de Meuron’s proposal focuses on enhancing its public role through strategic upgrades and new urban connections.
renderings by Renwerk, Aron Lorincz Ateliers, Photonimages.com
a palace garden reconnects the building with the city
At the heart of the project proposed by the Swiss studio Herzog & de Meuron is a landscape strategy that reshapes the relationship between the site and its surroundings. A series of gently descending terraces creates a generous public forecourt that extends into what the architects describe as a palace garden. Framed by mature trees and pedestrian pathways, the landscape introduces a welcoming civic environment designed to accommodate everyday use as well as larger cultural gatherings.
The new public realm softens the monumentality of the existing building and establishes a gradual transition between the city and the congress center. Ground-floor spaces open directly onto the landscape, encouraging greater permeability and activating the edges of the complex throughout the day.
a new public landscape and mixed-use development
preserving the landmark while upgrading its cultural role
The proposal retains the Palace of Congresses as the cultural centerpiece of the project. Renderings reveal restored public interiors organized around a spacious central atrium, where exhibition spaces, gathering areas, and public circulation are brought together beneath the existing structural framework of the building. The main auditorium is reimagined with warm timber finishes and a sculptural ceiling canopy that introduces natural light while improving the acoustic experience.
By limiting interventions to areas where they are most needed, Herzog & de Meuron seeks to preserve the architectural character of the building while adapting it to contemporary cultural demands. Complementing the revitalized congress center, a slender tower rises from a podium integrated into the broader cultural complex. The building accommodates offices and a hotel, creating a mixed-use destination intended to support activity beyond event programming. Its faceted geometry and repetitive structural grid draw on vernacular construction logics, according to the architects, while establishing a distinctive new landmark within Tirana’s evolving skyline. At its base, stepped public spaces and landscaped terraces connect the tower to the Palace of Congresses, ensuring the new addition remains part of a unified urban ensemble.
Set against the backdrop of Tirana’s rapidly changing cityscape, the winning proposal positions the Palace of Congresses as both a historical monument and an active civic destination for the future.
a palace garden steps down toward the congress center
generous civic space for everyday use and public events
the reimagined auditorium combines warm timber finishes with a sculptural ceiling
a central atrium accommodates exhibitions, gatherings, and public circulation beneath the existing structure
project info:
name: Palace of Congresses revitalization
architect: Herzog & de Meuron | @herzogdemeuron
location: Tirana, Albania
landscape architect: Michel Desvigne
visualizations: Renwerk, Aron Lorincz Ateliers, Photonimages.com
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