Prime Minister Edi Rama has reacted harshly to the phenomena of abusive construction and deformation of public spaces in the capital, targeting both builders and architects who, according to him, allow the transformation of initial projects for personal gain.
He also harshly criticized the way urban spaces are being deformed by businesses that use sidewalks, comparing the conditions of walking on the streets to "wartimes."
" They look like the gardens of Babylon, because people buy them. There is a builder here in Tirana who got a permit with a facade that was all green, there are no trees there, but he will never get a permit again, because the people who paid for it, also paid for the trees. You go and buy an apartment and hope for a good neighbor, but you come across an adjuster and he opens an adjuster, and it's like the day falls. The day a board is sawn, you get the saw in your brain and you can't wait for the day a bicycle tire sticks up and you don't understand anything. Is that how you live?
So I believe that all these addresses are correct. It is a massive article that has been abused, 6 and 7, because I learned it too. They said: when you talk too much, 7 is terrible. 'Permission for preparatory work.' I have the permission, he says, he has occupied the whole neighborhood and says 'I have the permission.'
Thank goodness the creativity of Vlorës also came out, in Lungomare, the iron pergola came out. When you hear 'pergola', you think I'm going to go under a vine and make some grapes. There is iron everywhere and Albania is filled with iron pergolas, and they put the trees inside the bar, while people don't know where to go, and they force us all to walk like in wartime: man in front, woman behind.
A small surprise at the end: a row for everyone, because there is no sidewalk, and in the meantime, the other row. The other one has his own row and come on, find out how pedestrian traffic works.
Someone sent me a video: 'Look at this guy, boss, how these guys are walking!' I don't know. The sidewalk is busy here and there, under the tree, everyone is sitting on chairs, so you can drink coffee, he comes and parks the car, you get hit with the door and falls on top of someone else, hoping that no one is passing by and you kill a small child. Urban life in the capital!” Rama said.
Finally, the prime minister called on architects not to let builders distort their projects, as otherwise they will fall into "some pit" themselves, referring to the punitive measures they may take.
"We need to think like people who live in this city, raise children, and I say to the architects: be men, because you are men, less brave, and set boundaries for the builders: 'This is my project and that's it! Don't go out!' And they won't do it anymore."
Kengo Kuma arrives, sought after by the whole world, and here the project gets out of control, because the local architect says: 'Leave it to the Chinese, he's just for the facade, but let's make some money.'
"The other one starts the project from Japan with wood, and you see, he returns to the local studio with iron, with the argument that we are not like in Japan with our material wood, but we have iron! I hope you will help us and do not fall into a hole, because we cannot get you out later. If you fall, no one can get you out, and you can say as much as you want 'I am an architect', you will go to the soup in turn," concluded Rama.