A museum to Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha has been turned into something more playful by the Dutch firm MVRDV.
Photographer: Ossip van DuivenbodeNow With Colorful Blocks, Tirana’s Pyramid Represents a Changing Albania
A monument to Albania’s former dictator, remade as a tourist-friendly community center, points to the western design influences reshaping the capital city.
The top of the Piramida, as residents of Tirana call it, is a great place to see the skyline of Albania’s capital. The soaring, communist-era ode to longtime dictator Enver Hoxha, who ruled the country for more than 40 years after World War II, offers clear views across downtown. From there, you can see the boxy silhouettes of the modernist apartment blocks built under his rule.
Today those apartment buildings are overshadowed by stylized high-rises — and the monument itself has a new sheen, too.