Established on the initiative of the Hague Congress, the College of Europe represents and upholds the European ideals of unity, cooperation, and integration. Initially located in Bruges, Belgium, the college later expanded to Natolin, Poland, as a way to support the country in their wish to be a part of the European “dream of a unified, peaceful and prosperous continent” after the fall of communism. In a similarly important and symbolic move, the college is expanding once more with a third campus to be located in Tirana, Albania. As the first campus to be designed specifically for the college, the Tirana campus, located in the historically significant “student city,” presents a unique opportunity to establish a symbol that simultaneously showcases the College of Europe’s ideals and celebrates Albania’s rich history and culture.

Beyond Tirana’s beautiful materials, colors, and textures, it is the people that stand at the center of the city’s spatial organization. Throughout Tirana, the ground and first floors of buildings are primarily occupied by social spaces and act as an extension of the city. Drawing inspiration from this, as well as from the rich history of the area that became the heart of the movement where thousands of students took to the roofs and loggias and demanded economic change and resignation of the communist government, it was determined that the Tirana campus would become a hub for social, cultural, and diplomatic exchange between students, EU delegates and the people.

With democracy being a fundamental value of the EU, the new campus follows a democratic spatial logic, with buildings dedicated for each of the program clusters that make up the DNA of the campus – a gateway building for public and social programs, a university building for all the necessary spaces of an academic institution, and a diplomatic building to accommodate the needs of visiting EU diplomats. These seemingly independent buildings are strategically placed at the edges of the site and oriented towards a central circular “agora” reimagined as a porous, concrete dome – reminiscent of the bunkers scattered around Albania – housing an auditorium. Further accentuating the relationship among the buildings and with the city, the ground floor of the campus has been conceived as an inviting grand foyer starting inside the buildings and projecting outwards in the form of a covered area spanning between the buildings, creating a ground floor canopy and a first floor green roof terrace.

The focus on promoting social interaction, cooperation and integration extends into the spatial organization of individual buildings, with each floor composed of a series of spaces leading the users from the most social to the more private zones. A generous core where people can connect leads to rooftop social spaces. Further in, a lobby the doubles as a collective workspace leads into private offices and classrooms. Inspired by their use by students during the protests, deep loggias wrap each floor, also serving as visual connectors between the buildings and fostering a sense of unity. Similarly, the agora’s spatial organization accentuates the democratization of space and promotes the involvement of people in the communal experience. The “agora” organizes the public in concentric seating around a circular stage in a manner evoking ancient Greek theaters, allowing for various seating scenarios.

The choice of materials, colors, surface treatments and façade articulation stems from a combination Tirana’s architectural landscape, Albanian history and culture and the College of Europe’s governing ideology. Inspired by the music sheet of “Ode to Joy”, the arrangement of design elements creates a harmonious composition doubling as brise-soleils helping to regulate the internal environments. Façades facing the “agora” are solid and smooth to accommodate full length murals designed by local artists. The central dome is punctured by arches of varying proportions, creating a visual and physical connection between interior and exterior spaces.

The design for the campus can be described as a balanced union of EU ideologies and Albanian history, culture, and tradition.