Since 1992, the College of Europe has operated two locations in Bruges, Belgium; and Natolin, Poland. Now, thanks to a new purpose-built campus designed by Oppenheim Architecture, it has a third satellite in Tirana, Albania. The new complex formally opened to students and faculty this fall.
Oppenheim Architecture (OA)—an office with locations in Miami, New York, Basel, and Tirana—ideated four new buildings for College of Europe’s verdant campus. An “agora” stands at the center of three structures which contain a library, museum, and event space; a university building with classrooms, lecture halls, and a cafeteria; and an administrative building with offices, meeting rooms, and accommodations for visiting European Union (EU) diplomats.
The domed structure takes cues from Greco-Roman theaters, OA said. The lecture chamber and panoramic seating within the “agora” are sunken underneath a concrete dome punctured by lancet arches, windows, and entryways. A folk mural by a local artist was lacquered on the dome’s interior.
The other three midrise buildings are plastered with dark-red pigmented concrete. This color is meant to echo vernacular architecture, the architects said. More murals by local artists abound on the complex’s exterior, some of which tell the story of 1991 student protests against Albanian communism.
Designers from OA, in a statement, noted that this project marks the College of Europe’s first purpose-built campus. “Whereas, the previous two campuses were housed inside historical structures, the new Tirana campus, located in the historically significant student city, is the first to be designed specifically for the college,” OA said.
“Through careful research into the history and culture of Tirana and its emblematic student city, OA recognized that beyond Tirana’s beautiful materials, colors, and textures, it is the people, and more generally social life that stands at the center of the city’s spatial organization,” the firm continued.
“A Democratic Spatial Logic”
The College of Europe was founded after World War II in 1949. Its mission has always been educating “an elite of young executives” that go on to work for various European diplomatic institutions. European prime ministers, presidents, ambassadors, minsters of defense, mayors, lawyers, and others have all graduated from there.
Like its counterpart in Natolin, Poland, established shortly after the Berlin Wall collapsed, College of Europe’s new branch in Tirana is meant to help guide Albania on its “journey toward democracy,” designers at OA said.
“Democracy being a fundamental value of the EU, OA sought to organize the new campus following a democratic spatial logic,” OA elaborated in its artist statement. “The choice of materials, colors, surface treatment and facade articulation stems from the merging of the outcome of our research into Tirana’s architectural landscape, Albanian history and culture and the College of Europe’s governing ideology.”
Oppenheim Architecture’s contribution to Tirana’s built environment comes amid a construction wave in Albania’s capital. In April, Steven Holl Architects and Polish artist Agnieszka Kurant released renderings of a new expo center in Tirana.
This followed a design from 514NE that redesigned Skanderbeg Square and a controversial project from BIG to replace the Albanian National Theater. In 2021, MVRDV announced its plans to convert a 20th-century monument into a reinvigorated cultural hub called The Pyramid of Tirana.
