The International Competition for the New University Campus “Aleksandër Moisiu” in Durrës entered today into its final phase, where, after a competition that brought together 41 Albanian and international teams, the 5 finalist teams will present throughout the day their visions for the new university campus of Durrës — a project that aims to create a modern space where education, scientific research, innovation, entrepreneurship, culture, and student life intertwine in a single ecosystem of development.

The 5 finalist teams are:

• 51N4E + Jeshile
• Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) + Kristo Krisiko + Architevo Design Collective + Embrace IDEAS + Rider Levett Bucknall + HSC Studio + Ergys Çaushi
• FRPO Rodriguez & Oriol + Porras & La Casta Arquitectos + Studio B&L + Agim Seranaj + Adrian Paci
• OZ + iRI shpk + Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners + Studio Sabine Marcelis + BUROMILAN Milan Ingegneria
• Practica + Studio Rebus + Studio de Peisaj Ana Horhat

At the opening ceremony of the final phase of the competition, Prime Minister Edi Rama also took part:

It is a very special pleasure that the next international competition has been brought here, to the campus of the University of Durrës, and I want to sincerely thank all those present who belong to this space of academic life in our country, and especially I want to thank the rector for the commitment and the valuable support he has given to this entire process.

We are in yet another international competition, in the continuation of dozens of such competitions, which are a reflection of our ambition for Albania and from which extraordinary opportunities arise for developments that change not only the quality of life of those who later become the users of what is built, but also change the way a community sees itself and its future.

We are very proud that, since we are here at a university, I thought it appropriate to emphasize this: we have created the largest open university of urban development in Europe by bringing together an extraordinary number of prestigious international architects and studios with local studios, with the young architects of Albania.

It is an open university in the full sense of the word, because it gives all those who are devoted to architecture and urban development here in our country the opportunity to confront their knowledge, to confront their convictions, with the knowledge and convictions of architects and studios that are at the forefront of urban development in the world.

It gives them the opportunity to grow professionally; it gives them the opportunity to learn by doing the work and not simply in theory. It gives them the opportunity to accompany, throughout the entire creative process and later in the implementation process, architects and professionals of the highest international level. And I am convinced that from this open university we will not wait many years to see that among the admired and respected architects of the world there will also be names of girls and boys who today are part of this open university. We too will have our own stars in the sky of architecture and global urban development. But until then, I want to say that today we are at the point where we already have the beginning of a very big and ambitious project for the new university campus of Durrës, to invest in a development that will complete a process started many years ago, and without any truly serious plan, with the opening of this university, and that will make it possible for this territory not simply to have students who come to attend classes and leave, but to have a student community center that lives 24 hours a day.

This is another result of the student protest of 2018, where we listened very carefully to what was being asked and naturally separated everything that had no connection with the future and with our possibilities from what truly had connection with the future and with our possibilities. Thus, based on the Pact for the University, we built a process that brought many positive innovations for students, brought much better conditions in dormitories, brought much better conditions in the university, brought new laboratories and many other things, and of course brought greater financial support for higher education. But we are aware that today this process must go one step further, and as you will see from the projects, we want to give direction also to the very acute issue — increasingly acute in fact, of student housing during the study period, because you know better than I do that not all students stay in dormitories, not all dormitory infrastructure has the capacity to cope with the demands, and many students rent apartments in the city, in Tirana or in Durrës, and this weighs on their families’ budgets.

Meanwhile, the creation of a residential zone for students makes it possible for them to have much more reasonable accommodation, but on the other hand also to socialize, and for academic development to move in parallel with their human and social development.

Likewise, I am convinced that while I am speaking now, and while the minister was speaking, I was thinking about those in Tirana, at the University of Tirana, who are twisting their lips and are not all that happy with what they are hearing, because they have long been trying to give an impulse and a new development to the campus of the University of Tirana.

This campus is not a development that excludes the other one. We are also in the process of harmonizing needs and addressing them between the College of Europe and the University of Tirana. The College of Europe is being built in Tirana, and it is another spectacular development based on another project of our army of international architects, and there too the opportunity will be created to have considerable space also for the University of Tirana.

I want to conclude with something related to this competition. This competition has two special innovations that were proposed by a group of students from the prestigious ETH Zurich, who, precisely because Albania has become a very attractive destination for professionals in the field of architecture and urban development — and we do not only have foreign architects working here, but we also have many others who come, connect with us, make study visits, or want to build cooperation. The students of Zurich have spent almost a year carrying out research projects in Albania, and there are two innovations being applied for the first time in a competition process.

The first is the creation of a student jury, which will work independently and in parallel with the official international jury, and I want to thank the members of the jury who have come from abroad to judge these projects. The students will also carry out an analysis and evaluation of the five finalist proposals and will draft a report with their conclusions, which they will present to the official jury before it takes its final decision. This report will also serve as an advisory contribution in the evaluation process.

At the same time, one student representative is part of the jury, as I see, a female representative, even better, of the official jury throughout the entire process, in the role of permanent adviser, bringing to the table the perspective of those who use the campus today and who naturally have their own vision of tomorrow’s campus.

The second innovation is related to expanding the discussion beyond the limits of the competition perimeter. Alongside the design of the campus, the finalist teams have also been asked to reflect on a connecting area between the university and the city of Durrës, considering it as part of the same urban story. The aim is to better understand the relationship between the campus and the city, and the way their development is, that is, the campus and the city, can support one another. While the official jury and the student jury carry out their discussions and evaluations, the finalist teams will take part in an intensive workshop with representatives of the Municipality of Durrës, the National Planning Agency, the Territorial Development Agency, and the local community.

For several hours, architects, planners, institutions, and citizens will work together to identify the main problems of the area and to generate ideas for concrete projects that can improve the lives of residents, but also of students beyond the campus perimeter, I repeat.

Of course, the workshop has several themes: public spaces, road safety, mobility, pedestrian and bicycle access, the transformation of informal areas through urban design, and at the end of the process the goal is that each finalist team will sponsor, and you know I like sponsorship very much, one or two pro bono projects, free of charge, something the architects have agreed to. And on this occasion I want to say that I am very grateful to the international architects who work in Albania, because what is not said, what is not seen, is their contribution in many solutions or pro bono projects, free of charge, for schools, health centers, or other requests that may come as a result of our work in the field.

Thus, these one or two projects will then be developed in cooperation with the Municipality of Durrës and partner institutions, the Albanian Development Fund, etc., under the professional supervision of Minister Demo.

In this way, we do not limit the competition only to the selection of one winner, but we consider it the beginning of much more than that.

I do not want to prolong any further. Once again, I want to thank the members of the jury who joined us in this effort, to thank the studios taking part. As everyone here knows, there cannot be five winners; there will be only one winner. But this does not mean there will be four losers, because meanwhile we are all committed, and they are all committed, to doing the best in a transformative and irreversible process for Albania.

Thank you very much.