Tirana’s iconic Pyramid building has been restored back to the Albanian capital with reborn proportions and different splendor after having been transformed into a new Albania’s innovation hub and the region’s major digital technology centre.

The ambitious project on revitalization of the Pyramid has been successfully finalized, with the building and this space now reshaped like never before into a jewel in the crown of the capital city, set to become one of the most popular and most sought-after attractions for the international tourists visiting Albania in the future.

Prime Minister Edi Rama addressed a special ceremony on opening the Pyramid building and the new space to the public.

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I have always dreamt of being viewed from top-down and therefore I am very glad to be the one who views others from the bottom up today.

This is one of my most vivid dreams that come true today. It has been a major controversy over so many years, since I took office of the Minister of Culture and when this building was called the international culture centre, but which was in fact a dilapidated space that used to house some kiosks offering various services, but what it lacked were people, life itself and it was not easy at all to reach this solution and this outcome, because these buildings that carry so much difficult history to keep as part of remembrance, always raise big dilemmas and major questions at to what should be done with them.

At some point, the previous government tried to demolish the facility and construct a new parliament building on this site and it was really a very interesting and surprising moment for me back then, as it were the young people who defended the Pyramid, a huge group of girls and boys, who were not encouraged by the political parties and had actually come together just because they wanted this building at its place.

The fact that those young people generally at an age having nothing to do with the previous Communist regime and mainly born in the 80’s and not emotionally connected and the fact that they still loved the Pyramid was very significant for us to reflect as to what can be done with the facility, which should not be merely a static building. However, this sounds pretty easy, a totally natural and organic thing as a result of a long time of thoughts, reflections, doubts, dilemmas.

There was later an equally absurd attempt to transform the Pyramid into a national theatre building, with a significant state budget fund allocated by the Ministry of Culture which again turned out to be a huge failure of the previous government. An amount of around 5 million euros was spent and the outcome was that the Pyramid was robbed of whatever it had yet. All its marble slabs and tiles were removed and all it was left was a skeleton that was supposedly designed to become the stage of the National Theatre.

This way we gradually came up with the idea for this building to be transformed into a public space open to everyone.

A conversation with Winy Maas was the very embryo of this whole tremendous transformation. He said that the building in that previous state was like a pile of wood, a fire burning on a fireplace and we should transform it into something with fire inside.

And indeed we came a long way thanks to an intense and very productive cooperation process between the Municipality of Tirana and the American Development Fund with the outcome speaking for itself thanks to a very visionary and very appealing design by the MVRDV studios and architect Winy Maas. The next challenge is how to populate this entire space with start-ups and other activities concerning the digital realm, concerning children and young people, as well as a space dedicated to older people, the elderly and I am convinced that Mayor Veliaj and his team will best handle and tackle this second stage.

We will definitely support the municipal team, as we have already pledged and no need to repeat it, because Mayor Veliaj is a very lucky man, but I would also like to express deep gratitude to the American Development Fund.

I would also like to thank everyone involved in implementation of this project, the construction company and everyone else that supervised the project, with the staircases being the project’s most amazing part as they ease climbing, it is not that the uphill symbolizes the impossibility of reaching to the top.

The Pyramid’s shell, once built for the cult of one man, is now the backbone that will now hold all these people today and imagine it as the backbone of this Pyramid will enter the Guinness World Records, as it will hold millions of people during its lifetime like no other building in the world.

I wish Tirana citizens, all Albanians in Kosovo and anywhere else will enjoy it.

The Pyramid is now transformed into a regional digital technology centre and will host people from other countries. The goal is that it becomes the largest regional centre housing digital technology activities.