Tirana's lake area is seeing fast growth, and a jumble of new buildings has risen around the southern shores and beside the zoo and botanical gardens. To avoid this ad hoc growth also effecting the remaining empty area beside the lake's dam, the Rotterdam-based architecture bureau MVRDV designed a rather spectacular masterplan to extend the park in this area and to add a high-quality and dense urban area along a new "Copa Tirana' lakeshore drive.
The plan forsees a number of large rectangular buildings to be placed at weird angles in the area below the dam. Nicknamed the Tirana Rocks, they are to be clad in local stone and will hold apartments, shops, offices, a hotel and recreational facilities.
The dam is to become more pedestrian-friendly, with benches along the whole lenght, and remains a green corridor, linked to the third floor lobbies of the new buildings by wooden walkways. South American jacaranda trees, which flower bright purple for a month every spring, are to planted throughout the area, and lit up on sumer nights. Construction of the €600 million project will start in 2010.
(Photo © MVRDV)