Among the world’s finest architects flocked to Tirana, Albania, final week for the second version of Bread & Coronary heart, a pageant centered round structure, panorama, ecology, and territorial improvement. “Landscapes of Abundance” was the pageant’s theme.
That very same week, 1000’s of protesters gathered in Tirana to rally against the development of luxurious resorts on the southwest Albanian coast, citing issues associated to environmental degradation and a perceived lack of transparency.
On June 9, Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama emphatically informed The Related Press he won’t halt the development of luxurious resorts on Sazan Island, a former navy base; and within the Nartë Lagoon space, a wildlife reserve dwelling to over 70 endangered species.
AN emailed the Albanian prime minister’s workplace for remark. Here’s a breakdown of the architectural tasks spurring mass protests within the streets of Tirana.
Sazan Island
Albania is anticipated to hitch the European Union (EU) by 2030, so property values across the nation are rising. EU accession is partly fueling the development spree in Tirana, and alongside Albania’s southern coast, on Sazan Island.
Sazan Island is a part of the Adriatic Riviera and about ten miles west of Vlorë, Albania’s third most populous metropolis. The island off of Vlorë was decommissioned as a top-secret navy base and chemical compounds plant within the Nineteen Nineties, and in 2024 it was declassified for civilian use. An RFP for Sazan’s redevelopment was printed in 2025.
In the present day Sazan Island has a monastery from the Center Ages, 1000’s of concrete “pillbox” bunkers constructed by former Albania prime minster Enver Hoxha for protection functions, and a community of underground tunnels. (Hoxha was famously paranoid.)
The plan for Sazan entails constructing 520 new villas, 600 townhouses, and 1,400 residences, a on line casino, an 18-hole golf course, a water park, and a brand new marina suited to superyachts. Branded lodges anticipated to sprout up on Sazan Island are Aman Resorts, Cheval Blanc, Cipriani, and Atlantis, per reporting by journalist Eric Czuleger.
The builders backing the Sazan redevelopment undertaking are Sazan Actual Property Growth, an LLC registered in Doha, Qatar, and chaired by Asher Abehsera; Affinity Companions, Jared Kushner’s Miami-based funding agency; and Belongings Group, an actual property company primarily based in Qatar based by two Qatari-Syrian billionaire brothers, Moutaz Al-Khayyat and Ramez Al-Khayyat.
Laboratory for Visionary Structure (LAVA), a global workplace headquartered in Berlin, collaborated with Systematica, a transportation consultancy, on the RFP for Sazan printed in November 2025 that, as we speak, is circulating amongst members of the Albanian public.
A spokesperson for LAVA clarified the workplace’s involvement on the undertaking for AN. “The doc in circulation was truly a draft examine developed by our workplace as certainly one of a number of research executed for the Sazan Peninsula. As indicated within the doc itself, this was a draft submission—not a last or authorized plan,” the LAVA spokesperson stated.
“As with all of our work, the examine prioritised ecological accountability, biodiversity, and the steadiness between land preservation and improvement,” the LAVA spokesperson continued. “Our involvement within the undertaking didn’t proceed past this stage, and we wouldn’t have any details about the present planning.”
Per a full of life interview Rama gave to CNN, taped in the course of the Bread & Coronary heart Competition earlier this month, Rama stated in regard to the Sazan Island redevelopment there’s not but a “undertaking,” as there is no such thing as a proposed design.
AN emailed Systematica for remark.
Nartë Lagoon
The Vjosë-Nartë Protected Panorama, extra informally referred to as the Nartë Lagoon space, is a wildlife reserve instantly north of Vlorë. The Nartë Lagoon is famend for its flamingos, so the latest wave of protests in opposition to the posh resort vacation spot slated for building there was referred to as the “Flamingo Revolution.”
In 2004, the Albanian authorities acknowledged Vjosë-Nartë as a “nature safety space,” thereby prohibiting improvement. In 2022, Vjosë-Nartë was redesignated from a “nature safety space” to a “protected panorama,” altering its authorized standing. A regulation enacted in 2024 permits for building on wildlife reserves like Nartë.
5 worldwide structure corporations—Bjarke Ingels Group; Kengo Kuma & Associates; Ateliers Jean Nouvel; Okay-Studio, a Greek workplace; and Emre Arolat Structure, a Turkish workplace—had been commissioned to develop a framework plan for the Pishë Poro-Nartë area, a 52,000-acre space throughout the Vjosë-Nartë Protected Panorama.
Bjarke Ingels, Kengo Kuma, and Emre Arolat spoke in Tirana this month at Bread & Coronary heart. A spokesperson for BIG extra lately informed AN that BIG is not energetic on the undertaking within the Pishë Poro-Nartë area.
“BIG was certainly one of 5 worldwide structure practices that contributed to an early evaluation and preliminary grasp planning framework for the Pishë Poro-Nartë area of Albania. Its scope didn’t embody Sazan Island,” the spokesperson for BIG stated.
“Following the completion of our contribution to that framework, BIG just isn’t at present engaged in any tasks within the Pishë Poro-Nartë area,” the BIG spokesperson continued. “Ought to any future work be thought of within the space, it could be approached—as all our different tasks—by means of the suitable planning and session processes, with cautious due diligence and a radical understanding of potential environmental and social impacts.”
Kengo Kuma, Jean Nouvel, Okay-Studio, and Emre Arolat didn’t instantly reply to AN’s request for remark.
The Protests
On March 15, 2024, Jared Kushner posted renderings on social media of his proposed tasks in Serbia and Albania. Some renderings had been of the resort undertaking Kushner had plans to construct in Belgrade (halted final December). Different renderings confirmed new villas and a marina on Sazan. Kushner didn’t checklist any architects hooked up to the renderings.
The New York Instances broke a information story in January 2025 that exposed the Albanian authorities had authorized Kushner’s improvement plans for Sazan. Tensions over the event simmered, as many Albanians felt caught off guard. Protests in Albania in opposition to the undertaking began occurring intermittently.
Animus towards the Sazan undertaking ramped up after Might 31, 2026, when a protester in Zvërnec, Albania, was detained by safety guards, crushed, and dragged away. A video of the unconscious protester went viral. Consequently, extra Albanians started protesting.
“It actually snowballed after that,” stated Elian Stefa, a curator and scholar primarily based in Tirana who has researched Sazan Island for the previous seven years. “The visible conceitedness of the entire state of affairs is what sparked it.”
“The protests are growing in numbers each day. Every single day there are giant protests within the capital,” Stefa famous. “The protests are pushed by the youth of Albania. They’re protesting the way in which this nation is being developed. The inhabitants doesn’t really feel concerned within the developments which might be occurring.”
The Ornithological Society of Albania, Eco-Albania, and different environmentalist teams at the moment are aiming to restrict improvement on Sazan and within the Nartë Lagoon. “The pure magnificence of those locations is unimaginable,” Stefa affirmed.
For Stefa, and different Albanians, the difficulty at hand has to do with transparency. “The principle drawback is that we’re stored at midnight,” he stated. “Most individuals discovered concerning the improvement from a New York Instances article. It wasn’t even our personal media that reported it. We really feel overlooked of all these processes.”
Shifting ahead, Stefa and members of the general public are calling for the Albanian authorities to rescind the regulation handed in 2024 that permits for improvement in nature protect areas. Stefa would additionally prefer to see extra native architects profit from Tirana’s building spurt.
“Albania is seen as this heaven for architects to return and experiment, a playground, like how Rotterdam was once,” Stefa stated. “However is all of this experimentation in keeping with the wishes of the individuals? Many really feel as if that the identification of the capital is altering with out their permission.”
As Albania inches nearer to becoming a member of the European Union, Stefa acknowledges it’s vital for Tirana to modernize, nonetheless there’s room for enchancment. “We stay up for reaching the EU with a contemporary and established face,” he stated, “however on the similar time, this shouldn’t occur in opposition to the desires of the individuals.”
Landscapes of Abundance
The “Flamingo Revolution” coincided with Tirana’s second Bread & Coronary heart Competition which, from June 3 to June 5, introduced worldwide architects to the town for panels, debates, and displays. (It additionally occurred concurrently with the announcement of a significant renovation undertaking in Tirana by Herzog & de Meuron, slated for Albania’s Palace of the Congresses.)
Bread & Coronary heart was organized by Albania’s Territorial Growth Company and Nationwide Territorial Planning Company alongside the NEWROPE Chair of Structure and City Transformation at ETH Zürich.
The checklist of audio system invited to the Bread & Coronary heart Competition is spectacular. Past Rama, Ingels, Kuma, and Arolat, different distinguished architects that spoke had been Stefano Boeri, Jeanne Gang, Kersten Geers and David Van Severen, Reinier de Graaf, Pierre de Meuron, Charles Renfro, Francis Kéré, Ma Yansong, Winka Dubbeldam, Amale Andraos, and Dan Wooden, amongst many others.
Stefa informed AN, “With the pageant, you will have all of those architects and, within the streets, you will have the youth of the nation saying that the longer term is for us to determine, not the architects.”
In the present day, the European Fee is making use of strain on the Rama administration to halt building in Sazan.
