‘Starchitects go home’: what’s the truth behind Albania’s astonishing building boom?
Sixty top architecture firms from around the world have mooted 500 eye-catching projects across Albania, sparking fury and protests. Now they’re being celebrated in an 800-page tome that some are calling ‘a smoking gun’
TL;DR
- Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is driving a rapid transformation of the country through numerous glamorous building projects.
- An 800-page book, 'The Albanian Files', documents over 500 projects proposed by 60 international architecture firms, coordinated partly through a WhatsApp group.
- Critics view the book as evidence of opaque decision-making, destruction of heritage, forced evictions, and potential money laundering for organized crime.
- Public protests have occurred, particularly against plans to develop protected nature reserves into luxury resorts, with concerns about the high cost of related events for locals.
- Architects involved cite 'freedom from 'no' in all its forms' as an attraction to work in Albania, with some acknowledging the lack of stringent rules.
- Concerns are raised about the financing of these extravagant schemes, with suspicions of dark money and money laundering in the real estate and construction sectors.
- Albanian authorities are investigating alleged criminal activities linked to construction projects, though architects are not implicated.
- The government defends the projects as modernizing policies balancing conservation and economic development, while EU reports criticize lax regulations.