Ekspozita Building, new project by MC A

By Editorial Staff - 17 February 2020

Mario Cucinella Architects (MC A), an international architecture practice specialized in a design that combines environmental and energy efficiency strategies, will build the Ekspozita Building, a 93 m-tall multifunctional building in the center of Tirana, Albania; comprising commercial, residential and public amenity spaces. The building’s unusual form allows it to partially encircle a generous new green space that is particularly valuable in a busy capital where open areas are few and far between.

The practice was able, through a rotation of the silhouette of the future building in respect of the plot, and the recession of the ground floor, to imagine a statuary building which is nonetheless permeable: no closed façades and various openings that form as corridors to connect this new build to the pre-existing ones. Generous planting and inward-facing balconies give a feeling of enclosure and protection from the busy city.

The design of the Ekspozita Building of 24 stories allows for it to occupy only 44% of the plot, while the outer façades pay close attention to the climate of Tirana with a solar shading system that minimizes heat gain in the generously glazed building in the summer. The design team calculates that these strategies will mean that the building uses 30% less energy than other comparable developments.

The building will be starting on site in 2020 and is scheduled for completion in 2023.

All images courtesy of Mario Cucinella Architects