Located in downtown Tirana, the National Theatre of Albania is a 9,300-sm venue designed to host local and touring theatre companies in the nation’s capital. The new facility sits adjacent to Skanderbeg Square, the National Opera, and the National Art Gallery.
In addition to replacing the existing theatre, the new National Theatre of Albania adds three new indoor performance spaces, a rooftop amphitheater, and a covered public space underneath the building. The public space is created via the building’s prism shape that is lifted at the center, which creates connections and public plazas on both sides of the theatre at street level. This public space can be used for impromptu performances or other cultural events.
Rendering courtesy BIG.
Immediately upon entering the building, guests will see two grand stairs that flank a ticket counter. The stairs lead up to the theatre foyer, the main auditorium, and the smaller black box performance spaces. The main auditorium is located in the middle of the bow tie shape, sandwiched by the front-of-house activities facing the south and the back-of-house activities and services to the north.
Rendering courtesy BIG.
The facades on each side of the building (at the end of the bow tie) make use of abundant glass to reveal the interior program to passersby. “The two main facades of the National Theatre of Albania are opened up to expose the spaces inside the building to the public outside. One side reveals a foyer, lounge, bar and restaurant as well as two experimental stages to passersby, like rooms in a dollhouse,” says Bjarke Ingles in a release. “The other side reveals the entire section of the backstage, side stages, under stage and fly tower, exposing the entire theater machine to curious observers.”
The rooftop venue and café are also accessible to the public. The theater has a slight slope that creates an amphitheater-like space framed by the backdrop of the city.
Rendering courtesy BIG.
Rendering courtesy BIG.
Rendering courtesy BIG.
Related Stories
| Jan 4, 2011
An official bargain, White House loses $79 million in property value
One of the most famous office buildings in the world—and the official the residence of the President of the United States—is now worth only $251.6 million. At the top of the housing boom, the 132-room complex was valued at $331.5 million (still sounds like a bargain), according to Zillow, the online real estate marketplace. That reflects a decline in property value of about 24%.
| Dec 17, 2010
Sam Houston State arts programs expand into new performance center
Theater, music, and dance programs at Sam Houston State University have a new venue in the 101,945-sf, $38.5 million James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center. WHR Architects, Houston, designed the new center to connect two existing buildings at the Huntsville, Texas, campus.
| Nov 3, 2010
Park’s green education center a lesson in sustainability
The new Cantigny Outdoor Education Center, located within the 500-acre Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., earned LEED Silver. Designed by DLA Architects, the 3,100-sf multipurpose center will serve patrons of the park’s golf courses, museums, and display garden, one of the largest such gardens in the Midwest.
| Oct 13, 2010
Biloxi’s convention center bigger, better after Katrina
The Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi is once again open for business following a renovation and expansion necessitated by Hurricane Katrina.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community center under way in NYC seeks LEED Platinum
A curving, 550-foot-long glass arcade dubbed the “Wall of Light” is the standout architectural and sustainable feature of the Battery Park City Community Center, a 60,000-sf complex located in a two-tower residential Lower Manhattan complex. Hanrahan Meyers Architects designed the glass arcade to act as a passive energy system, bringing natural light into all interior spaces.
| Oct 13, 2010
Bookworms in Silver Spring getting new library
The residents of Silver Spring, Md., will soon have a new 112,000-sf library. The project is aiming for LEED Silver certification.
| Oct 12, 2010
Holton Career and Resource Center, Durham, N.C.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Special Recognition. Early in the current decade, violence within the community of Northeast Central Durham, N.C., escalated to the point where school safety officers at Holton Junior High School feared for their own safety. The school eventually closed and the property sat vacant for five years.
| Oct 12, 2010
Richmond CenterStage, Richmond, Va.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Bronze Award. The Richmond CenterStage opened in 1928 in the Virginia capital as a grand movie palace named Loew’s Theatre. It was reinvented in 1983 as a performing arts center known as Carpenter Theatre and hobbled along until 2004, when the crumbling venue was mercifully shuttered.
| Oct 12, 2010
Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Gartner Auditorium was originally designed by Marcel Breuer and completed, in 1971, as part of his Education Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Despite that lofty provenance, the Gartner was never a perfect music venue.
| Sep 13, 2010
Second Time Around
A Building Team preserves the historic facade of a Broadway theater en route to creating the first green playhouse on the Great White Way.
