Villa no.4

This project involves the reconstruction of a Government Villa, (no.4) within the grounds of the Palace of Brigades (former Royal Villa ) in Tirana.

This villa was initially built in the ‘50s and was expanded, adding new facilities to it in the ’60-‘70s, serving as a holiday residence.

It was reduced to a highly amortized state and had become uninhabitable. The duty of the design project was to transform it into a permanent living villa for one of the highest personalities of the state. With a moderate budget, its reconstruction would involve the remodeling of the interior space and the improvement of the facade and the entire personality of the building.

The most difficult thing in a reconstruction is no doubt to find reference points for your idea and inspiration for what you want to remove and what you want to preserve. The fact is that it is indeed easy to learn from the past, but we know as well how difficult it is to bring past history to the present time in such a way as to retain its freshness and modernity.

With this design project, I tried to create a history that combined the past and the present, returning the villa to the time it was built, that is, to the ‘50s, in the years of European Modernism, trying to imagine and dream how this villa would be redesigned in those years, which were years of an extraordinary optimism for architecture.