‘Starchitects go home’: what’s the truth behind Albania’s astonishing building boom?
Around 60 architecture firms from across the world have proposed about 500 projects in Albania, including towers in Tirana, public spaces and coastal resorts. The development drive under Prime Minister Edi Rama has drawn fury and protests, while a new 800-page book, The Albanian Files, brings the projects together and has been described by some as a “smoking gun.”
About 60 prominent architecture firms from around the world have mooted roughly 500 projects across Albania, according to the supplied source material. The proposals form part of a rapid building transformation in the former communist country under Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has led Albania since 2013.
The projects include twisting towers in the capital, Tirana, prize-winning public spaces and striking coastal resorts. The source also says that many additional visions are planned, but does not provide details about their locations, construction status or completion dates.
The building programme has prompted fury and protests, although the supplied material does not specify the organisers, locations or demands involved. It also does not give a breakdown of which projects have been approved, built or cancelled.
The projects are collected in an 800-page book titled The Albanian Files. Some people have called the book “a smoking gun,” but the source does not identify them or explain what evidence they believe it contains. The source describes an informal conversation involving a prominent architect in New York and references an “Albanian Architecture Army” chat, but provides no further details about the participants or the projects discussed.
THE QUESTIONS THIS EVENT LEAVES BEHIND
Who benefits financially from the projects proposed by international architecture firms?
What approval standards determine which proposed developments can proceed?
How have protests influenced decisions about the building programme?
What public costs or displacement risks are associated with the projects?
What would happen to Albania’s development plans if the proposed projects were not built?
YOUR QUESTION
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GLOBAL CURIOSITY MAP · SEPTEMBER 2026