The project is designed as a mixed use residential district, with a built area of 250.000 square meters on an 80.000 square meter site.
Facilities include a hotel, spa, restaurants, cinema, commercial area, shopping centre, offices, indoor sporting facilities, a clinical analysis centre, olympic swimming pool and auditorium. According to law, there is a maximum height restriction of 9 storeys, whereas the project develops as 1, 6 and 8 storey buildings throughout.
The design of Serre responds to the brief for a high density development but at the same time aims to create an urban condition of the highest quality and comfort providing both public and private amenities which benefit the local area and the city of Tirana.
An eighteen century courtyard type model was employed in the masterplanning of the area.
Beginning from this archetypal model, the blocks were split by adding volumes-and-voids within the courtyards and fragmentation of the blocks to create open spaces and access.
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Through a process of iterative modifications of the archetypal model the project develops as a porous-and-accessible system contrasting the existing surrounding urban conditions of impermeability and exclusion.
The request of the local council to exclude one of the proposed buildings in lot 1C created an open space of 15.000 square meters, designed as a public green space.
This is equivalent to the area of Rinia Park: the main public green space situated along the Brasini axis.
The interstitial spaces between building blocks are designed as an urban park open to the public as opposed to privatised spaces accessible only to residents within the complex.
A further increase of public space is created by keeping the distance between building-blocks higher than that dictated by Tirana's building regulations, at 24 meters versus 18 meters, also increasing the penetration of sunlight at ground level.
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