Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the launch of the competition for Student City master plan:

A hearty welcome to the jury members, architects, urban planners and academics that are part of this competition, which the Albanian government has launched to absorb more attractive proposals, in view of the necessity of a radical transformation of the Student City area.

This space is the image of a spectacular degradation of many many years. It is in a way a laboratory of all democratic experiments in the period of a freedom without rules and anarchy in the approach to the territory and to the treatment of the territory. But we are very confident that it is at the same time a space that has a great potential to be transformed into a real university campus and in the first example of a public and private space available to students, young people, but also to talents and innovative flows.

This competition as well is part of a chain of international competitions that the Albanian government has launched or is launching in order to continue with our national program of Urban Renaissance, insisting on the creation of those examples of urban transformation which, in our view, have a tremendously energizing and healing effect on degraded urban realities and on communities that have lost hope for years. The most meaningful examples of this program, among many examples that can be taken, are on the one hand Korça, where the effects of these interventions are bringing immediate results to the local economy, and on the other hand Durres, where the same thing is happening, along with a number of other cities.

We have already had a number of competitions on two levels. The level we are in this case, which is the first level or the highest level of demand to innovative proposals, in view of creating these examples of transformation, and the level of Regional Development Fund which has launched a whole program for Urban Renaissance.

Today, we have available a number of really inspiring files, but at the same time, we have also real development instruments that are waiting to be funded, and we are willing to finance them. I mean here the file of some projects on the Ionian Coast; the file on the newest project or the newest idea for a new island in Berat; the project on the Park on the Lake; the project on the New Lake Coast in Pogradec and so on. I won’t mention them all.

Meanwhile, we are preparing for several other competitions. The very first, after approximately 10-15 years, is the one for the front entrance of Park on the Lake. The aim is to give a chance to university student to have some public spaces that are missing today. At the same time, we meet the need of the Faculty of Geology to have a new facility, with fully modern standards, and the need of the High Court and of the Magistrates’ School to move to the current building of the Faculty of Geology.

Another competition is the one for Faith Park, which has its center at the pyramid, but that includes all green spaces at the heart of the city. Our intention is to create a tangible image, a livable environment, of religious harmony in our country from which, obviously, are not excluded but are absolutely included all those who do not believe in anything. This Park will bring in the heart of the city all species of flowers, plants and trees that are mentioned in the holy books of all religions.

Then there is the competition for the Opera, for a thorough reconstruction of the Opera Theatre, where no intervention has been made since time immemorial, but where, despite of the most difficult conditions, culture of the highest level has been generated.

There is also the competition for the new hall of the Theater of Drama.

We have also a special competition for redesigning the function of a number of buildings which have been threatened for over 20 years by an ongoing degradation, because their use is very partial, not to say that they aren’t used at all. This will be a separate block, starting from the Villa of Enver Hoxha to the National History Museum, to the building of the Union of Writers and the Palace of Brigades. Our wish is to make these spaces available for citizens for a broad public use.

Today, this contest marks a turning point in the university life. Of course, the time from drawings to implementation doesn’t pass in the twinkling of an eye, but it is about time for a thorough redesigning of the campus, not only from a urban and architectural point of view, but also from the standpoint of financial logic by creating a new operational model that guarantees the most dignified level of service to students attending university, but at the same time a dignified level of community life.

The Student City is today a collection of dormitories degraded over the years, where sporadic intervention have been made without any ambition or long-term goal. We believe that the area has a great potential to be not only the beginning of a transformation of the entire network of university services outside university classrooms, but to be another strong point of reference from the urban and social standpoint in the capital city.

It is necessary to emphasize our need to look at this project not as detached from developments that have taken place all around, but to look at it as a healing instrument from the urban point of view and as a means to promote social healing across the territory surrounding the campus.

I am convinced that, as has happened to us in the past, this competition will be another window to see further and, of course, in the right direction.