The Blloku Cube is located in the central part of Tirana, in the heart of the Blloku, an area that in the post-communist period was restricted to military access for then becoming a nerve center of the city’s public life thanks to the proliferation of services, shops, bars and restaurants. The main entrances of the building, both for the commercial and for the offices, are located on the main streets Pjeter Bogdani and Vaso Pasha
On the ground floor, the square plan, about 30 meters per side, presents a significant variation: the corner has been cut at the intersection of the road axes and the main entrance. Thanks to the uniformity of the floor between exterior and interior, this alteration creates a porch inviting to access the commercial space.
The cutted angle propagates to the first floor of the volume, also hosting retail activities. The west front of the building tilts to connect to the upper floor configured as an unaltered square. The folding of the glass façade that results from this peculiarity generates an inclined space where a system of seats, literally resting on the facade structure, which offers a panorama on the city and underly public space from a new perspective.
The Blloku Cube has a regular square plan for the next five floors, destined for office use, and culminates, on the seventh floor, with a Rooftop Garden Restaurant.
The identity of the building is strongly characterized by its special envelop, making it iconic within the skyline, and especially highly performant thanks to the technological system of the “double skin”. In fact, the double-skin façade system is composed of an internal curtain wall, which fulfils the requirements of thermal and acoustic insulation, and a modular shielding in micro-perforated sheet panels.
SCE Project was involved in the integrated design in the preliminary phase (architectural, structural and MEPF) and in the architectural design in the executive phase of the Blloku Cube in Tirana.
