Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has hit back at critics of the wave of landmark buildings designed for Albania by international architects, putting the attacks down to "the jealousy of mediocre people and people who cling to nationalism".

Rama was speaking on October 1 at the launch of designs for "Tirana Fountain Plaza", the redevelopment of the privately owned Taivani building in the capital's Rinia Park, for which Danish studio Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) beat Barozzi Veiga, COBE, l'AUC and Julien De Smedt Architects. In his speech he rejected, point by point, claims of opaque decision-making, destruction of heritage and forced evictions, and denied that foreign architects come to Albania to do what would be forbidden at home.

"It has never happened in Albania, in any case and for any reason, that anyone has been forcibly evicted from their home to develop a private project," Rama said, according to a transcript published by his office. Competition juries are made up mostly of architects, urban planners and academics, he added, and "there is never an orientation or influence on the jury from the Albanian side, which is in the minority".

The speech answered questions put to his office by an architecture critic. The next day the The Guardian published an investigation under the headline "Starchitects go home", the latest in a run of critical coverage that has turned architecture, the signature of Rama's 13 years in power, into one of the main charges against his government at a time when Albania is in the final stretch of EU accession talks and has faced months of street protests.

A museum of contemporary architecture

Rama, a painter by training, first won international attention as mayor of Tirana in the 2000s, when he had drab communist-era blocks painted in bright colours and demolished, by his own count, more than 10,000 illegal buildings. As prime minister he launched the Tirana of the New Generation initiative in 2014, personally inviting 32 international architects to rethink the capital, while Stefano Boeri drew up the Tirana 2030 master plan, designboom reported.

The results are now going up across the city. MVRDV turned the Pyramid of Tirana, a former monument to communist dictator Enver Hoxha, into a youth and technology centre, and its 140-metre Downtown One, its facade pixelated into a map of Albania, is due to become the country's tallest building. Herzog & de Meuron plans to add a 260-metre tower to the communist-era Palace of Congresses, Dezeen reported in June, and Zaha Hadid Architects, OMA, Bofill Taller de Arquitectura and Kengo Kuma all have projects in the country.

"To me, an architecture festival is more important than a political summit," Rama told Dezeen in an interview last October. Swiss architect Christian Kerez told designboom that the transformation is "curated by the highest governmental official, the prime minister", who personally supervises "the architectural projects for all large and exposed plots".

The Albanian Files

The debate erupted following publication of an 800-page book, "The Albanian Files: Freedom and Architecture", edited by Anneke Abhelakh and published by Lars Muller, in which 60 international practices describe their work in Albania in their own words, with a foreword by Rama. 

Several architects describe being approached directly by the Albanian prime minister. Austrian architect Chris Precht says Rama contacted him on Instagram; he now has 29 projects in Albania, including a €4mn garden in the courtyard of the prime minister's office, according to The Guardian. Berlin-based Sam Chermayeff recounts being asked to design two towers totalling 45,000 square metres after a late-night call. The makeover is partly coordinated through a WhatsApp group of architects nicknamed the "Albanian ArchArmy".

"A narrow group of foreign architects is contacted directly by the prime minister's office and receives projects without a competitive procedure," says Arkitektet Shqipare, a group of Albanian architects and planners that has built an online database of the projects. A group of about 600 people organised by writer and activist Fatos Lubonja is scrutinising the book, with lawyers reportedly preparing a complaint to the Special Prosecution Office against Corruption and Organised Crime (SPAK). Rama's office called the allegations "hearsays" and "bitter assessments".

Rama under pressure

Rama is already under pressure following months of demonstrations dubbed the "Flamingo Revolution". The protests erupted on May 30 over a luxury tourism development near the protected Vjosa-Narta wetlands linked to Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law. It has since become the biggest sustained anti-government protest in decades. The government suspended Kushner's Sazan island project in June after the European Commission warned it was incompatible with accession, and in July Rama promised to repeal the strategic investments law and revise the 2024 law that allows five-star resorts in protected areas.

Rama has not given up on the coast. Speaking in New York on September 26, he said the Zvernec development could bring more than €4bn of investment. Some of the proposals in the book are for virgin beaches and protected dunes, including an MVRDV glass hotel spanning the gorge at Gjipe bay and a settlement for 50,000 people in the Divjake-Karavasta national park.

Another issue is where the money comes from in one of Europe's poorest countries. Albanian families need 16.3 years of income to buy an apartment, the longest in Europe, after prices rose 44.5% y/y in the second half of 2024. Yet construction firms carry little bank debt: among 163 of Albania's largest builders it made up just 5.3% of assets in 2024, according to a study by Albanian business publication Monitor with customers and suppliers financing much of the work.

The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime calls Albania's construction sector "heavily infiltrated by illicit funds", and estimated in 2020 that €1.6bn had been laundered through Albanian real estate in the previous three years. SPAK seized €150mn of apartments, villas and commercial property tied to an alleged cocaine network in June, and Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, a senior Socialist, has been held in pretrial detention since February 2025 on corruption and money-laundering charges he denies. Investigative platform Citizens.al says several projects in the book are linked to ongoing SPAK investigations, and more than 40% do not name the client.