The “Bukë e Zemër” (Bread and Heart) Festival has brought together 150 renowned international architects from Europe, Asia, North America, and South America in Tirana.
Prime Minister Edi Rama stated that this festival places Albania on a prestigious new map of Europe, creating the premise for “Bukë e Zemër” to become a global event.
Rama considered the festival’s coinciding with Eid al-Adha (Kurban Bajram) as a “blessing, not a coincidence.” According to the head of government, the festival represents a step forward, a space where architects will be heard.
“Albania is a country that attracts the world’s most visionary architects, it attracts them with something very difficult: a shared belief in the reality of a dream. Something full of life, unrepeatable, free from the comfort of regulations that don’t stifle,” Rama said.
He further elaborated: “This festival is an Eid of the soul, an act of taking steps forward, not to dominate the land, but to listen to it, not to sacrifice one vision for another, but to let our egos give way to something shared, something greater to be born in their place. If this seems like a coincidence, this coming together of a new beginning on a holy day, I don’t believe in coincidences and I invite you to feel the connection between this day and this new adventure to take this unparalleled convergence not as a coincidence, but as a blessing.”
Rama concluded by emphasizing architecture’s transformative power: “Architecture can transform not only spaces but also the mind, the imagination of a community, the vision for the future. Today, we begin a new adventure together here to create a new space in a spiritual form, a space where architects must be heard.”
