MET Tirana | MCA - Mario Cucinella Architects

The MET Tirana is a 12-story high-density residential and mixed-use building in the heart of the city of Tirana in Albania. Extending to 48.7m in height, the scheme is conceived as a reference point within the broader urban redevelopment plans of the Municipality of Tirana.

Distributed over an area of approx. 1,800 sqm, the scheme also includes a high-quality public realm and street furniture.

Set within a block full of prestigious buildings and functions, the new building offers maximum permeability to pedestrian flows at the ground floor, freeing up a substantial share of land area (50%) and leaving the remaining space to commercial, public, and sports facilities.

Turning urban planning constraints into an opportunity to experiment with ‘excavated’ architecture, the building form is made up of a series of varying volumes and materials, resulting in an elegant spiraling exterior.

Outside the large volume of the residential tower, a series of terraces and green diaphragms are designed to equip every dwelling with outdoor areas of high quality.

They give the building a very organic image, redefining the paradigm of compact and massive monumentality that characterizes the residential and specialist high-density building recently built in the center of Tirana.

The volumetric design and elegant articulation of the façade, punctuated by opaque and transparent modules above a completely glazed ground level, optimize natural daylight within, whilst also reducing the amount of solar radiation.

Staggering green terraces lined with trees provide outdoor space for each of the apartments, visually connecting the building to the boulevard.

Place: Tirana, Albania
Year: 2014 – on going

Project Developer: Albanian investment Construction (A.I.C.) Shpk

Project: Mario Cucinella Architects
Team: Mario Cucinella, Marco Dell’Agli, Eurind Caka, Paolo Greco, Marta Torsello, Luca Vernocchi, Francesca Fochi, Laura Lamendola, Angelo Ungarelli, Martina Rosati;

Definitive: Michele Roveri, Kseniya Shkroban, Marta Bordi
Concept: Michele Olivieri, Giovanni Sanna, Francesco Visco, Alberto Menozzi
Andrea Rossi, Elena Biason (environmental design)
Yuri Costantini (modellista)
Alessia Monacelli (Render)

Structures: Erjon Petriti Consulting Eng.

Plumbing Systems: ArchiMED S.P.S.
Electrical Installations: FISHTA electric sh.p.k.
Landscape Architects: LAND Italia s.r.l.