The streets of Tirana, Albania were once lined with cold, gray concrete buildings. That was before the radical mayor Edi Rama did something about it. Rama comes from a family of artists. In fact he himself is an artist who uses Tirana for his canvas. There's a great article in The New Yorker about the mayor's artistic vision. In 2004 he won the City Mayor of the Year award. I love the crazy and colourful buildings in Tirana, and I'm always on the hunt for frshly painted facades.
What's behind the front may still be dark and dreary, but at least there is joy on the outside.
What's behind the front may still be dark and dreary, but at least there is joy on the outside.
"There are three forms of visual art;
painting is art to look at,
sculpture is art you can walk around,
and architecture is art you can walk through."
Dan Rice
Which, in my eyes, makes the buildings of Tirana masterpieces of visual art!
10 comments:
These are amazing photos, Kim, with an incredible quote by Dan Rice. Wonderful!
What a wonderful way to cheer up the city ....... I love the top mural - and I quite fancy the purple balcony !
To take a screenshot of whatever it's displaying on your computer you hit the print screen button, usually found on the upper right corner of the keybord next to scroll lock. For laptops you might have to hit a function key at the same time too. Try it either way.
After you hit the print screen button, it means that you just took the shot, and it's on your clipboard. So, you launch photoshop, or ms paint in case you didn't have the first one, and right away you go to edit paste.
Now you will have the picture displayed on your screen and you can edit/crop as you like. Save as .jpg.
If you have a Mac, let me know because the directions are different.
Now, I want to see your screenshots, asap!!!
I read the 1st half of that article and all I could think was--WOW!! That just goes to show that all it takes is one person with a mission to make a difference. Beautification projects have a very positive impact and in Chicago/NYC the same things have been happening, and the result is that more people are chosing to make the inner cities their home and this leads to more vibrancy and renewal. Soviet-style buildings are oh so depressing, I'm sure Tirana residents really appreciate all the color.
Wow - those are crazy but I love looking at architecture... Thanks for sharing! :)
I love the colours! Athens needs more colour as well...not just on the buildings but on the people as well. A little splash of colour brightens everyone's day. Unless of course it's makeup...then that's just clownish. LOL
That's fantastic. I would always have wrongly imagined Tirana as a dark, grey city. I particularly like the third building.
Yeah, I like the colors a lot.
There is this Building which has fake rombs painted, that look 3d-ish. Very trippy to watch, especially in the evening.
Hi there, we "spoke" earlier this year about me possibly using some of yor images to illustrate an article I'm working on...I'm most interested in yor shots of teh painted buildings of Tirana.
If you are still interested, please drop me a line at:
madeleine53[at]juno.com.
I look forward to hearing from you!
hey
i found some crazy buildings photos
http://www.gradiliste.com/crazy-buildings.html
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