Bring Some Salt. ARW Associés à Tirana pour le Bread & Heart Festival 2026

There is a country currently rewriting itself — and it is doing so out loud, with its hands in concrete and its head full of visions. Albania is no longer a promise; it is already a construction site of ideas, where around 200 international teams are working on projects spanning Tirana, the coastline, the mountains and rural villages. An open-air laboratory that, for now, only a few truly understand.

From June 3–5, 2026, ARW Associés will be in Tirana for the second edition of the Bread & Heart Festival, an international gathering dedicated to architecture, hospitality and dialogue on the future of Albania. Representing the practice will be Matteo Facchinelli, Founding Partner, and Alessandro Galperti, Office Tender Manager & Strategic Relations.

The festival is headquartered in the Book Building by 51N4E on Skanderbeg Square, but this year it expands beyond the city centre. The opening evening takes place in the Eden Garden at the Prime Minister’s Office, while the closing day is hosted at the Tirana Art Garden by Kengo Kuma in Petrelë — a small gem just outside the city, created precisely to foster the kind of conversations Bread & Heart seeks to encourage. Architecture, landscape and hospitality become a shared language.

The theme of this edition is “Landscapes of Abundance”, a title that says a great deal. The focus shifts from individual buildings to larger systems: ecologies, infrastructures and living geographies that are shaping the country’s ongoing transformation. The curatorial thread, “From Portrait to Landscape,” reflects a transition from architecture as an isolated object to architecture as a framework for relationships, territories and collective narratives.

The festival is co-curated by the NEWROPE Chair of Architecture and Urban Transformation at the ETH Zurich, and its format is intentionally hybrid: keynote lectures featuring voices such as Francis Kéré, Jeanne Gang, Benedetta Tagliabue and Petra Blaisse, alongside architect-designed pavilions, model exhibitions, closed-door brainstorming sessions, performances and shared dinners. Not a conference. A genuine place of encounter.

We are not arriving as visitors. Our presence in Tirana is part of a broader journey already underway — relationships, projects and competitions — and of a conviction we continue to pursue: that Albania is today one of the most vibrant and compelling places to work in Europe.

Bring some salt, as the festival’s claim suggests. Do not bring expertise alone; bring perspective, friction and surprise.

Discover more:
Bread & Heart Festival 2026