coop himmelb(l)au: the new parliamentary complex of the republic of albania

vienna-based office coop himmelb(l)au has won the competition to design ‘the new parliamentary complex of the republic of albania’ in the capital city of tirana. the 28,000 m2 project will be the first building by the internationally-recognized practice in albania. situated along the compositional axis of the city, the design aims to provide a strong urban statement as the newest addition to tirana’s urban fabric. expressing a decidedly contemporary architectural character, the building serves as a visual landmark for the locals as well as a bold representation of the albanian republic’s  future political center.

all images courtesy of coop himmelb(l)au

‘our design for the new parliament in tirana, albania, stands for the transparency of democracy,’ says wolf d. prix, design principal and CEO of coop himmelb(l)au. incorporating a number of different building elements, the holistic design aims to include fundamental democratic values such as openness, transparency and public co-determination.

view of the parliamentary hall from the public roof

at the core of the center, the parliamentary hall is accommodated by a glazed cone that peeks over the office building, which is wrapped in a curtain-like exterior skin made from panels of perforated steel. a wide public stair at the base of the building leads the public to the landscaped roof of the plinth building, serving as an expansive elevated plaza where views into the parliamentary hall are established. the main entrance to the complex is through a solid conic form that acts as the counterpart to the transparent parliamentary hall.

interior view of the parliamentary hall

in order to provide optimal environmental conditions in an energy efficient manner, a number of passive concepts are incorporated into the final design of the building: the careful configuration of the forms reduce the use of fossil fuel while the dynamic second skin of the office building drastically improves the building’s performance related to daylight intake, views, solar control, glare and noise protection, thermal insulation and natural ventilation.

model

project info:

client: the republic of albania, the parliament
site area: 28,000 m2
gross floor area: 38,650 m2
footprint: 13,100 m2
height: 36 m, 50 m (highest point)
length: 88 m, 70 m (office building)
width: 60 m, 70 m (office buiding)

design principal: wolf d. prix
design partner: karolin schmidbaur
senior project partner: michael volk
project partner: hartmut hank
project architect: friedrich hähle
design architects: ivana jug, steven ma
project team: anne arildsen, peregrine buckler, veronika janovska, kadri kerge, heimo matt,
anais méon, valerie messini, ismet qorrolli, jeroen roosen, tamara soto bailon, xinyu wan
3d visualization: steven ma, cynthia sanchez-morales
graphic: thomas hindelang, jan rancke, anja sorger
photography: markus pillhofer
model building: sebastian buchta, tyler bornstein, paul hoszowski, la chi nam,
morteza farhadian dehkordi, tichen lu, magnus möschel
animation: isochrom
structural engineering: B+G ingenieure, bollinger grohmann schneider ZT-GmbH, vienna, austria
energy design: prof. brian cody, berlin, germany