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Dutch architecture firm MVRDV has given the Pyramid of Tirana a colorful makeover and a future-facing new purpose. The structure was first built in 1988 as a museum honoring Enver Hoxha, the former Communist dictator of Albania. After the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the Pyramid served a range of purposes, from housing a nightclub to acting as a NATO base during the Kosovo War. There had been several proposals to demolish it, but a majority of Albanians were in favor of keeping the Pyramid. In 2017, the Albanian government announced plans to transform the building in the nation’s capital into a digital hub for the country’s youth. The renovation retained the existing structure, which had undergone a series of incomplete renovations and fallen into disrepair over the years. MVRDV added an operable glass facade, which allows for temperature regulation. Most notably, the architects added colorful boxes embedded in, on top of, and on the grounds around the Pyramid. These boxes house TUMO Tirano, an educational program that offers free courses in technology, robotics, and animation. Stairs were added to the building’s sloping faces to enable access to the Pyramid’s roofscape through multiple paths. One sloped section was left uninterrupted so that young people can still climb up and slide down the building, a favorite pastime.

Photo © Ossip Van Duivenbod