In the heart of Albania’s capital city, a new kind of cultural hub is now open and accessible to the public. The Pyramid of Tirana, originally built as a museum for communist dictator Enver Hoxha, has been dramatically transformed by MVRDV. The design sees the brutalist monument in the heart of Albania’s capital city, once the showpiece of Communist dictator Enver Hoxha, dramatically renovated. The concrete structure is reused, the atrium and its surroundings greened and opened, and a small village of cafes, studios, workshops, and classrooms – where Albanian youth will learn various technology subjects for free – permeates the site, both inside and outside the pyramid itself.
The Pyramid is thus expected to become a new hub for Tirana's cultural life and a carrier for the new generation. Within the deteriorating structure steps rise up the sloping sides, allowing people of all ages to climb to the top of the building. On the western side, a lift gives access to the top of the Pyramid for those who can’t climb the steps. Inside the Pyramid’s voluminous interior is a stack of coloured boxes containing individual rooms that house the building’s new programme. These colourful additions are also found on top of the structure, and scattered in the plaza at the front of the building.
Around half of these spaces will house non-profit educational institution TUMO Tirana. The other half of the coloured boxes will be accessible to the public, hosting rental spaces for cafés, restaurants, studio spaces, and more. Huge, tiered glass flaps replace the glazing between the Pyramid’s concrete beams, protecting the interior from rain while keeping it open to the elements. The space inside the Pyramid’s shell acts as a climate buffer to reduce the cooling requirements of the programmed spaces within the coloured boxes.