Figaro Resto-Bar / Klaudio Curmaku

In Tirana, Albania, this interior transformation for a small resto-bar connects Mediterranean geography with local cultural memory. Within a five-meter-high concrete shell, two monolithic “rock” volumes orient the plan and bring a sense of landscape indoors—one planted with cacti to underline the southern character and the contrast between rough mass and refined touch points.

The spatial strategy favors clarity and human scale: a continuous 2.2-meter horizon line keeps the tall room legible and comfortable, while nine spherical lights trace this level to guide movement between entrance, bar, and seating, creating a gentle contrast between the darker upper zone and the warmly lit lower one. The bar is defined by a suspended luminous cube that stops at the 2.2-meter limit, marking the service area without blocking views and introducing a measured tension within a calm space. Seating clusters orbit the two volumes and the bar canopy, creating degrees of intimacy without partitions and maintaining simple, readable circulation.

Located in an authentic neighborhood of Tirana, within a new building that—like many others—has replaced earlier villas with high-rise residences, the project seeks to reactivate collective visual memory. It does so by reinterpreting ornaments observed on nearby villas from the early 20th century and adapting them for contemporary use. The intention is to make ornament, luminaires, and electrical fittings operate as a single system, integrating these technical fixtures into the overall design rather than concealing them. At the same time, the ornament is treated as part of the spatial order rather than applied décor: two basic Euclidean figures—the circle and the rhombus—are introduced in green marble, mediating between reddish timber and mint tones present in the interior.

In place of the traditional rosette with a central chandelier, the ceiling employs round air-supply diffusers; together with the circular aperture of the suspended cube, these elements define four circles that help mark four distinct zones. The lighting fixtures adopt the same ornamental grammar, with green-marble elements installed on both sides of the column at a height of 2.2 meters, reinforcing the horizon line set across the room. Meanwhile, the sockets—in dark-brown porcelain—are placed along the axis of the lights and intentionally kept visible, acknowledging contemporary charging needs while contributing to the interior’s coherent technical language.

The result is a calm, tactile interior where landscape cues and reinterpreted ornament align with everyday use, clear to navigate, familiar in spirit, and distinctly Tirana.