Pyramid of Tirana
Former Enver Hoxha museum of 1988, rebuilt by MVRDV as a climbable youth and technology centre.
The Pyramid stands on Bulevardi Bajram Curri in central Tirana and opened on 14 October 1988 as a museum to Enver Hoxha, three years after his death. It was designed by a team including Hoxha's daughter Pranvera Hoxha and her husband Klement Kolaneci, with Pirro Vaso and Vladimir Bregu, as a low faceted concrete structure of sloping planes rising to a central point. After 1991 it served as a conference and exhibition hall, was used by NATO during the Kosovo conflict in 1999, and later housed television and radio studios, spending long stretches half-derelict and covered in graffiti.
Rather than demolish it, the city commissioned the Dutch practice MVRDV to convert the shell, and the rebuilt Pyramid was inaugurated on 16 October 2023. Steps were added over the sloping faces so that anyone can walk to the top, and the interior was opened up and filled with a stack of small coloured boxes holding classrooms, studios, start-up offices and cafés. The main occupant is TUMO Tirana, a free technology and design centre for teenagers, and the surrounding square is used for festivals and public events.
Highlights
- Opened in 1988 as the Enver Hoxha museum
- Rebuilt by MVRDV and reopened in October 2023
- Steps up the sloping faces lead to a rooftop viewpoint
- Coloured boxes inside hold classrooms, studios and cafés
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