Expo Albania is the multifunctional center of the Tirana of the future, the project which has arrived today in the final stage of its competition, where 5 prestigious teams in the world of contemporary architecture, selected from nearly 60 competitors from all over the world, will present their concept ideas.

The center is expected to offer Tirana a modern exhibition infrastructure, until now missing, evincing our capital as a leader in the region in terms of international industry events, organization of fairs, exhibitions of art, culture, history, conferences and various meetings, thus creating a new offer for Albania 2030.

In the competition, two famous studios of American architects Steven Hall and Jeanne Gang, the German studio Kuehn Malvezzi, the Belgian team of Office KGDV and the well-known Stefano Boeri’s Italian studio in Albania will compete in the final stage.

At the start of the competition, Prime Minister Rama greeted the attendees, as he emphasized that the contribution of architects is nothing short but extraordinary in the path of our country’s transformation.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama’s welcoming speech: Good morning to all the guests and, first of all, to the competitors!

I like to speak myself because I always run the risk of getting into arguments with the translators.

This is a very important moment in the path of the country’s transformation and for the new phase of development that our country has entered, which is due to, among other things, the contribution of architecture and the presence of, I would say without hesitation, a wide circle of architects with international prestige, who are added day by day, in order to bring to life a future that architecture helps to foresee through its expressions and performances. And it is a great pleasure to have another meeting that brings together international architects from both hemispheres of the globe to compete for another ambitious project, bringing another contribution to Albania at a next-level development where architecture has a role to play and where we have the firm conviction that the contribution of architects will be extraordinary.

Of course, everyone can predict the future in their own way, especially here through different forms and manifestations of architecture. This international competition in this final has as its goal to select the project, I would not say the best one because I am convinced that all the projects of these studios are without question very good, but of the project that the jury will see as the most suitable to give Albania a new center that we have named “EXPO Albania” where we will have an infrastructure for special organizations from trade fairs to art exhibitions, to events, conferences, meetings of various sizes and definitely also a destination for the residents of Tirana, but also for the increasingly numerous visitors and tourists, who will find reasons to visit this new space that we are building.

Of course, this comes at the right moment because a few years ago it would have been very premature to invest massively in this kind of infrastructure, but now this is exactly one of the many things that Albania needs in order to move forward and raise the stake of her ambition.

I want to thank with all my heart the members of the international jury who accepted the invitation to be the judges of this competition with truly highly respected finalists in the world of contemporary architecture and in a special way I want to thank the president of the jury, Benedetta Tagliabue, a renowned name in the world of architecture and another member of the growing group of architects who have the desire of harnessing the potential of architecture to transform an entire country.

Thank you Benedetta, thank you very much and without wanting to go to all the members one by one, I want to specially greet one of the first competitors in these international competitions, an extraordinary architect who returns to Albania this time as a judge, though he had left Albania a sign of his extraordinary talent and I am confident that he has returned after so many years not to be away for many more years, but to leave at least another mark, if not more, by contributing to this collection that I wish, I believe, I am convinced, in Albania 2030 will be an extraordinary collection of jewels of contemporary architecture, Professor Valerio Olgiati.

Thank you, Valerio, life is beautiful and you are a witness to that because once upon a time you were judged, I am sure unfairly you think, because you did not win, but you are now back as a judge, a judge in jury and you have every opportunity to take revenge against the bad judgment and give victory to the best. While I sincerely hope that since you left years ago leaving behind a very beautiful object, you will return this time not forgetting to leave behind another very beautiful object. I am hopeful about that.

And finally I want to sincerely thank all the finalists. We have had a list of interested parties that has so far been the longest list of international studios interested in our international competition, more than 60 applicants, but what has excited us has been their quality and reputation and I believe we have chosen 5 finalists, who deserve all our admiration, all respect and all our gratitude for the fact that they accepted this challenge and came to Albania.

Four of the five finalists are new to Albania and this naturally makes us very happy. We are touched by this, because they are not just four young people who have just arrived from the world of architecture, they are four great names in the world of contemporary architecture. For the first time we have two Americans who are trying to “conquer” this country and three Europeans who are trying to protect this country.

So we welcome this “invasion” if it happens, because it will not be through bombs, but through a flourishing architecture, and we also welcome preservation if it happens, because it will add even more to what we are trying to do.

Usually my speeches are much longer, but I will stop here and wish everyone good luck. I know not everyone can win, but what is more important, I hope that while the winner will build the exhibition center, those who will not, can build other projects, and we are quite willing to support everyone to have the chance to build this new Albania together and to do something through architecture that only architecture can do. Only good architecture can inspire, energize and make people believe that the sky is the limit!

Thank you!