Mangalem 21

Mangalem 21

OMA + Kontakt.Ltd

Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department

ARCHITECTS
Kontakt.Ltd, OMA

LEAD ARCHITECT
OMA

LEAD TEAM
Arch. Ardita Gusho

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Kontakt. Ltd

STRUCTURAL
LEAL

MANUFACTURERS
Gutmann, KEIM, Alwitra, Ardex, Dörken, Everest, ROCKWOOL

PHOTOGRAPHS
Kontakt Design Department

AREA
120000 m²

YEAR
2023

LOCATION
Tiranë, Albania

CATEGORY
Residential Architecture

Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department

English description provided by the architects.

The project covers a plot of land in the eastern part of the city, bordered by mountains and former communist quarters to the north, and informal settlements from the 1990s to the south.

Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department
Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department

The site has a very prominent slope: the difference between the lowest and the highest point is 27 meters, an equivalent of a nine-story building.

Inspired by the configuration of the informal settlements, OMA proposes a chequerboard-like pattern of blocks and courtyards.

Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department
Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department

The sloped terrain allows for every building to look over the other, creating different views over the surroundings.

High density is achieved while leaving 70% of the site open for public plazas and green spaces.

Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department
Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department

The development is car-free, and all parking is underground.

The main street running through the development brings together commercial activities and connects Mangalem 21 with the future Metrobosco green belt and the new ring road planned by the municipality.

The abstract chequerboard pattern turns into a continuous array of habitable spaces by elaborating the tangent corners into architectural entities.

Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department
Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department
Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department

Three typologies emerge: the 'straddle core', a vertical circulation shared by two adjacent buildings, the 'straddle apartment', an apartment spanning over two adjacent buildings, and the 'kissing corner', two tangent building corners.

The project's manifest use of color is a reference to the initiative of Tirana's former mayor Edi Rama to paint the city's communist-era apartment blocks in the early 2000s.

Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department
Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department

A limited color palette, applied in various combinations to exterior walls, window frames, and shutters, gives each façade its own unique expression.

The openings are organized in a system that uses standardization to create diversity by shifting their position and subdivisions.

Mangalem 21
© Kontakt Design Department
Mangalem 21
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The roofs are treated as a fifth façade as the stepping configuration of the development makes them visible from the upper buildings.



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Mangalem 21
Site Plan
Mangalem 21
Ground Level - Compositional Plan


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Diagram - Coverage
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Diagrams - Edge Condition and Ring Road
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Diagram - Field of Vegetation
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Diagram - Public Realm


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Illustration - Mangalem 21
Mangalem 21
Illustrations - Cultural Plazas
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Illustration - Spine Boulevard
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View Illustrations - Spine Boulevard
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3D Modeling - 360 Overview


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Section - Spine Boulevard
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Sections - Building Heights
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Parking - Plan and Section
Mangalem 21
Model