Alanis Diem, Anna Badia, Colin Müller Tranformation of the Pallati i Brigadave

The project tries to give a new approach to the treatment of heritage, in the Pallati I Brigadave
located in Tirana, Albania. The proposal consists of the maintenance of a selection of rooms,
specifically chosen, and a complete transformation of the rest. These rooms would create a
path in three dimensions within the palace, that would contain a certain narrative. We believe
that by keeping only some parts of the palace, we are reinforcing them and keeping only the
essential, the heart of the palace. The intensity of the project is set on the design of the
connexions between these rooms, which in most cases where not originally connected. It’s in
these connexions where the spectator is aware of the different realities happening at the same
time, on the one hand the original palace maintained and converted into a museum, on the
other hand the rooms that are not preserved, filled with a public program that calls the citizens
to inhabit the building.
The project is also based on a prior major research of the rooms of the palace in order to be
able to make a proper selection, by going through all the pictures, movies and texts we had
access to. This allows us to draw in detail every and each room we decide to preserve,
cataloguing accurately its furniture, and to learn about the stories behind every space.
Entering from the current main entrance, a ramp replaces the existing stair proper of
monumental buildings. At the end of the ramp the view over the city is enabled through a big
opening. This visual axis is symbolically connecting the building to the city.