Considering Colour as a Functional Element of the Built and Inhabited Spaces in Tirana

Gjergj Ruci

Abstract: In the built space in Tirana, colour is rarely represented as a formative element but just as a decoration quality. As one of the units of space perception, colour plays an important role in how the city is perceived, how the identity of a city is constructed and the form with which the senses capture the atmosphere of inhabited spaces. The object of this study, as a macro-space is Tirana, and especially the buildings painted during the time of Edi Rama as mayor of Tirana. During the years 2000-2004, Tirana experienced an aesthetic and visual change. Many of the palaces built during the dictatorship period were painted in different formats and colours as a process of modernization for the city, but also to lay a new foundation of change in terms of how inhabited buildings might look.

Keywords: color, Tirana, architecture, perception, space