Lakeside Competition

Tirana Lake is clearly the town's most valuable asset. It represents a miniature version of the mountain landscape that surrounds the town. This plan enhances the park as a leisure destination by adding a unique combination of sports, park land, water and urban living while preserving the green openness already theree. Rather than fill the site entirely with low rise building, like those around it, MVRDV propose a high density settlement along the lake, intensifying the area while preserving the rest of the park.

The cantilevered and leaning buildings allow for a great variety of apartment types, shopping and offices and ‘echo’ the Tirana typology. The stacked and twisted volumes create spectacular public spaces and provide dramatic vistas. Clad in local stones the buildings turn into a series of ‘rocks’, the ‘Tirana Rocks’.

Dense clustering of the program on the lake side allows the site to become part of the chain of parks surrounding the lake. Planting a park of Jacaranda trees will add a new characteristic element to the area and provide natural shade; the tree’s long lasting blue flowers will appear as a ‘blue cloud’. A promenade along the water creates an active social zone that contributes to the idea of a ‘Copa Tirana’.