steven holl reveals winning design for expo center inspired by hand signatures in albania

steven holl architects wins expo albania competition

Steven Holl Architects reveals its winning design for the Expo Albania international competition, developed jointy with artist Agnieszka Kurant. This sculptural center will take shape in Tirana and include an iteration Kurant’s 2015 project, End of Signature, by collecting hand signatures from local communities and fusing them into a single wandering line. Traversing the rectangular volumes of the expo center, the line shapes the CLT roof trusses in a dancing rhythm, demonstrating how ‘the art becomes architecture,’ the jury comments. 

merging local hand signatures into one wandering  line | all renders © Steven Holl Architects

honoring TIRANA’S heritage and setting ecological standards

Beyond its artistic front, the Expo Albania center by Steven Holl Architects (see more here) aspires to the highest ecological standards with geothermal heating and cooling, state of the art white solar shingles to harness all electricity. Skylights provide natural light that can also be blackened for events, and a large reflecting pool of recycled rainwater and graywater shapes public space. The expo park even reuses excavated earth to create mounds as acoustic buffers in rewilding landscape. Laslty, local heritage, like Albania’s 3,000-year-old wine culture, is celebrated in the adjacent wine hotel, demonstration vineyards, and wine trade festivals that will be hosted in the new expo hall. The winning team comprises Steven Holl Architects, Agnieszka Kurant, Atelier 4, Atelier Markgraph, Stoss, and Arup.

Expo Albania will be developed in Tirana

using recycled and excavated material

project info:

name: Expo Albania

location: Tirana

architect: Steven Holl Architects | @stevenhollarchitects

artist: Agnieszka Kurant

collaborators: Atelier 4, Atelier Markgraph, Stoss, Arup