BIG Wins Tirana Fountain Tower Competition to Build Above Rinia Park

BIG has won an international competition to design Tirana Fountain Tower, a cloud-like mixed-use building lifted on white columns over Rinia Park in central Tirana, Albania.

The project beat four other shortlisted studios and will contain apartments, offices, a hotel and cultural spaces. Renders released by BIG show rows of perforated white disks wrapping the glazed facades of the structure.

Where will the tower sit?

The building will stand at the edge of Rinia Park on Rruga Sami Frashëri, where the Taiwan Center restaurant complex and the adjacent Taiwan Pool water feature currently sit. Two curved volumes clad in fluted glass will anchor each end and carry the upper mass of the tower down to the ground.

BIG plans to retain the Taiwan Pool and fold it into a closed-loop water system that captures, stores and reuses water for surrounding planting. "The project transforms a privately operated site into a new cultural and mixed-use destination, introducing gardens, plazas, water features, and gathering spaces that connect the park to the Lana River while preserving the historic fountain," the studio said.

How does the design treat the ground plane?

Slim columns raise the principal volume of the building, leaving most of the parcel below free for planted gardens and public gathering space. BIG has framed the intervention as both architectural and ecological. Rainwater management features will irrigate the landscape to cut flood risk and cool the park in summer.

The disk-clad facades are intended to animate the interior spaces as light filters through the perforations. Renders indicate public functions such as a library alongside the offices, apartments and cultural programming.

Who did BIG beat?

The jury selected BIG from a shortlist of five studios:

• Cobe
• Barozzi Veiga
• l'AUC
• JDSA

"Selected from a shortlist including Cobe, Barozzi Veiga, l'AUC, and JDSA, the design brings architecture, landscape, and water management together as a single civic experience," BIG said.

How does it fit BIG's Albanian portfolio?

Tirana Fountain Tower becomes BIG's third documented undertaking in or near Tirana:

• Tirana Fountain Tower, Rinia Park (competition winner)
• The National Theatre of Albania, a bow-tie-shaped building already under construction downtown
• Faith Park, a cluster of interfaith pavilion buildings planned for a hillside outside the city

Tirana Fountain Tower will also sit within walking distance of the Pyramid of Tirana, a former museum MVRDV converted into a cultural hub.

Renderings were produced by Engram Studio, BIG said. No height, floor area, start date or completion timeline has been published.

With Faith Park still in design and the National Theatre under construction, the studio's Albanian workload now includes a third headline commission centered on water and landscape.