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Let’s talk about a disturbing phenomenon, which unfortunately accompanies our progress at every step: Destruction in the name of development!
Today, as we speak, Tirana has changed a lot and is slowly losing the shape of the city in which I grew up! Those pieces of history that remind you of the period of Italian influence, with symmetrical villas and beautiful gardens located in the block of villas on Elbasan Street, the national Theatre Complex on " Murat Toptani " Street, or the Neoclassical and Ottoman style houses that suddenly appear through the alleys of Tirana that connect the main roads, are vanishing from the memory of our city!
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mbretëresha_Geraldinë_Maternity nga Jora Kasapi
Sadly, but these valuable buildings for our city, as a testimony of our past, are leaving the way to contemporary development of a modern architecture, some massive buildings, often out of context, where the only parameter considered is the economic one. We are repeating the history making the same mistakes made in each period: with every regime, wanting to impose itself, erases and destroys the previous traces, detaching from its roots, which makes its survival impossible. Thus, a city without character emerges, without identity and foreign to its citizens.
Today, we are writing about the "Mbretëresha Geraldinë" University Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, yesterday about the National Theater, the children's park "7 Xhuxhat" and tomorrow ... ?
Are we going to wake up and see that another important piece of our cultural heritage is gone?
Source https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mbretëresha_Geraldinë_Maternity? photo by Jora Kasapi
There are thousands of examples in the world of how the buildings of historical and spiritual value, have been reconstructed without demolishing them, by adapting them to contemporary conditions and use. Let us not go far, but bring two examples realized in Albania, such as the reconstruction of the Bank of Albania and the realization of the ‘Marubi’ Museum in Shkodra.
Examples of how with the right desire and the adequate way, a balance between preserving the values of the building, ensuring the right comfort by creating an economically sustainable project is achieved and still preserve our wanted or not past!
Source: Petreschi Architects
The main problem at this point, is not whether the intervention was adequate, but the total lack of information on this project, what kind of intervention will be carried out? How come there was not a more detailed information for professionals, even making them part of the process?
Why when Tirana has a new logo for its 100th anniversary, all of us are invited to participate by choosing the one that we like most, but when the theme is about real decision that affect the historical fabric of the city, our city, we have no voice ?!
If we can't preserve what belongs to our culture and history, how can we build a better future?
Meanwhile, let's know more about this building:
Mother and children's home - Tirana
Today, the "Geraldina" maternity hospital is a building built by Arch. Tito Chioni, in the years 1939-1940, during the strong influence of fascist Italy in the development of Albania.
Two buildings in harmony with each other. One two floors high and the other three, which are connected to each other through a portico. As a building of importance for the time, it was designed on the boulevard designed by Armando Brasini, at the north of the boulevard ‘Vittorio Emanuele’.
The volumes are different from each other and do not respect any axis of symmetry, neither in the plan, nor in the facade. The only elements that connect this complex, are the materials used, brick masonry and finishes in travertine. An important element on the main façade is the bas-relief of the Florentine sculptor Giusseppe Gronchi.*
*Armand Vokshi - “Tracce dell’Architecture Italiana in Albania” pg..202
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mbretëresha_Geraldinë_Maternity photo by Jora Kasapi