Finalist at the WAF Awards 2019 for the Future Projects Residential Category, the MET Tirana is a 12-story high-density residential and mixed-use building in the heart of the city of Tirana in Albania. Extending to 48.7m in height, the scheme is conceived as a reference point within the broader urban redevelopment plans of the Municipality of Tirana.

Distributed over an area of approx. 1,800 sqm, the scheme also includes a high-quality public realm and street furniture.

Set within a block full of prestigious buildings and functions, the new building offers maximum permeability to pedestrian flows at the ground floor, freeing up a substantial share of land area (50%) and leaving the remaining space to commercial, public, and sports facilities.

Turning urban planning constraints into an opportunity to experiment with ‘excavated’ architecture, the building form is made up of a series of varying volumes and materials, resulting in an elegant spiraling exterior.

Outside the large volume of the residential tower, a series of terraces and green diaphragms are designed to equip every dwelling with outdoor areas of high quality.

They give the building a very organic image, redefining the paradigm of compact and massive monumentality that characterizes the residential and specialist high-density building recently built in the center of Tirana.

The volumetric design and elegant articulation of the façade, punctuated by opaque and transparent modules above a completely glazed ground level, optimize natural daylight within, whilst also reducing the amount of solar radiation.

Staggering green terraces lined with trees provide outdoor space for each of the apartments, visually connecting the building to the boulevard.

About MC A - Mario Cucinella Architects

MC A - Mario Cucinella Architects is an established architectural firm with offices in Bologna and New York and an international team of more than 100 professionals including architects, engineers, graphic designers, model makers,and researchers. The firm was established in Paris in 1992 and opened its offices in Bologna in 1999.

MC A has extensive experience in architectural design that combines environmental and energy efficiency strategies and relies on an R&D department that carries out research on sustainability with a holistic approach.

MC A develops his research in Sustainability and Social changes in collaboration with its post-Master Program SOS School od Sustainability.

Among MC A’s highlight projects (in Italy) are: Unipol Group Headquarters Tower, the new surgery and emergency unit for the San Raffaele Hospital, San Raffaele Hospital and Rovati Foundation Fondazione Rovati Etruscan Museum, all in Milan; WSRWorkshop Ricostruzione Emilia in Emilia Romagna, Italy and the new headquarters of the Rectorate of the Roma Tre University in Rome Italy; The firm has also projects in progress in Europe, China, Central Africa, Algeria and the Middle East: Viertel Zwei in Wien, Austria, two mixed-use buildings in Albania and the new headquarters for the Algerian Regulatory Authority for Post and Telecommunications in Algiers.