51N4E, SKANDERBEG SQUARE, TIRANA

This publication shows the ambitious transformation of Skanderbeg Square, in Tirana, Albania. The project was initiated by the then Mayor of Tirana and current Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama and realized under current mayor Erion Veliaj. It is the result of a collaboration between Belgian architecture office 51N4E, Albanian artist Anri Sala, Belgian environmental designers Plant en Houtgoed, and Albanian company for project implementation iRI. Transforming the central square of a nation that is founded only in 1912 and that is now a developing young democracy, the project compresses all the hope and tension that come with that transition.

With its focus on transition, this publication is a pilot episode of a series called Chapters, a progressive documentation of the work of architecture office 51N4E and its collaborations with related people and practices. Every Chapter combines the presentation of one or more projects with a forward-looking reflection on the key issues that shape them. Produced progressively over the course of the next years, the ambition of the whole series is to outline how 51N4E aims to engage with contemporary society in all of its complexity.