{"id":43149,"date":"2017-07-03T17:06:26","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T15:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/under-pressure-facts-of-socialist-architecture-in-albania\/"},"modified":"2017-07-03T17:14:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T15:14:29","slug":"under-pressure-facts-of-socialist-architecture-in-albania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/under-pressure-facts-of-socialist-architecture-in-albania\/","title":{"rendered":"UNDER PRESSURE Facts of socialist architecture in Albania"},"content":{"rendered":"

The architecture of Albania during the communist regime comes for the first time into the attention of an international audience with the exhibition “Under Pressure – Facts of socialist architecture in Albania”<\/em> opened in Venice, Italy from June 27 to July 21, 2017. The exhibition is based on a research conducted in the Polytechnic University of Tirana during the last three years, which aims to open the debate about pressure and design, ideology and architecture in one of the most isolated communist realities in the world. The exhibition is supported by IUAV, university of Venice, which is hosting the event and encouraging the debate about the unknown reality of Albanian architecture.<\/p>\n

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Under pressure – Facts of socialist architecture in Albania<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is an effort to envisage the reality of communist Albania by using architecture as a decoding tool. The exhibition invites the visitor to read a storyline, which is neither chronological nor built on sequential facts. Constructing a path would constitute in a way a biased approach or a perspective by the authors. The exhibited material aims to neutralize any possible level of pre-interpretation, which drives the visitor towards his personal exploring and experiential paths into an unknown context.<\/p>\n

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Palace of Congresses Tirana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The generic theme of the exhibition consists in illustrating the many forms of dialogue established between architecture and political power, portraying at the same time a dichotomy that is mirrored throughout the creative process of the architect.
\nGiven the Albanian context, how was architecture impacted by the pressure modeled from ideology and communist propaganda? The answer is revealed through an episodic collage that exposes pieces of distorted, bended or overlapped realities. Eight episodes are served to illustrate the puzzle; Ideology and design, Approach and image, Standardized design, Prefabrication, Dissidence (?), Atheism, The National Form, and Architecture as communication tool.<\/p>\n

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apartment building in Tirana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through these thematic etudes it is legible how, in many cases, architecture is transformed into a medium, enabling communication between the political power and citizens. Architectural or urban entities become the ground upon which the propaganda is materialized into form or space, and where ideology continuously models the artistic worldview.<\/p>\n