Faith Park

Faith Park is a park of shared spirituality. Rooted in the Albanian heritage of interreligious harmony, the project proposes an architectural system that organizes space in a fluid, non-impositional way, allowing different traditions to coexist. The project originated from an international competition promoted by AKPT and the Albanian Investment Corporation, and was developed in collaboration with Openfabric, Park, AMDL Circle, Tharm Architects, MIC-Hub, and Lachlan Turczan. Selected among the five finalists, the proposal reimagines the sacred garden: not a walled paradise, but an open landscape where nature, culture, and beliefs intersect.

The path unfolds upward: visitors enter through the Threshold Building and then ascend toward the Spiritual Wellness and Religious Structures halfway up the slope, reaching the light Eco-Conscious Accommodations suspended among the trees. Each level corresponds to a different intensity of experience—from the collective to the intimate, from community to solitude—transforming the journey into a ritual act of contemplation. The architecture is organized around a Cartesian grid of pathways, ensuring full accessibility along the slope and connecting built elements with scenic points. At the intersections lie the Landscape Follies: small structures and clearings that host artistic installations, collective rituals, and performative actions.
The entrance to the park is marked by the Threshold Building, which includes the Welcome Pavilion, the Museum of Memory, the Event Structure, the Restaurant, and the Garden of Faith. Emerging from the mountain itself, the architecture is not imposed but revealed, carved into the natural contours of the terrain. Formed more by void than by mass, the structure traces a path between compression and release, shadow and light, silence and echo. In this choreography of absence and presence, emptiness becomes the true material of architecture—a vessel of awareness where the mountain opens to embrace all who arrive. Subtle gestures, such as the sound of water, the play of light, and the touch of stone, guide the inward passage, attuning body and spirit. The threshold thus becomes a shared ritual of transition.
The Spiritual Wellness complex, with guest rooms and thermal baths, unfolds on terraces carved into the rock, following the natural rhythm of the hillside. Spaces flow into one another in a continuous sequence, where each experience leads seamlessly to the next. At the highest level are the baths, featuring a large circular pool conceived as a meditation space, illuminated by light filtering through a zenithal opening carved into the hill.
The four Religious Structures rise on stone bases along the main path, serving as landmarks within the park. Three are dedicated to the major Abrahamic traditions, while the fourth—open to the sky—welcomes all other faiths, forming a plural sanctuary. Their forms draw on archetypal languages of the sacred: polyhedral volumes, centralized plans, and the interplay of light and shadow. Subtler distinctions—such as floor textures, the choreography of natural light, and the presence of ritual objects—allow each tradition to express its intimate voice. Access is not simply through a threshold, but along a circular stone base that also serves as a walkway, lifting the visitor from the ground and suspending them in an upward gesture.
The Eco-Conscious Accommodations are small contemporary stilt houses—minimal units raised among the forest edges. Inspired by the Albanian kulla, a symbol of hospitality and protection, they blend discreetly into nature, revealing human presence without imposing it. They provide privacy and communion with the landscape, like small sanctuaries of solitude and harmony. Their form recalls a stack of firewood—a testament to a caring, reciprocal relationship between humans and the forest. Following this archetype, architecture becomes a gesture of empathy toward the environment rather than conquest. The roof is the defining element: the gabled form evokes the primordial idea of home; the vaulted roof suggests a spiritual embrace; the single-pitch roof follows the forest slope, aligning with light and silence.