Survival through Architecture

A Survey and Analysis of the Architectural Oeuvre of Skënder Kristo Luarasi, 1908 – 1976

Issue: Open Access E-Book
ISBN: 978-3-85125-938-4
Language: Englisch
Release date: February 2023
Series: Archiv und Bibliothek der TU Graz, Issue 9

This book provides an historiographical account and formal analysis of the architectural work of Skënder Kristo Luarasi (1908-1976). Luarasi studied  architecture at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz). For forty years, until he died in 1976, Skënder Kristo Luarasi designed and administered the construction of more than 250 buildings throughout Albania. Relying on original drawings and archival material, this book punctuates key moments of  Luarasi’s oeuvre by staging it as an integral part of the Modern Architecture in Albania. Modernism in Albania is often perceived as an imported affair, without a history of its own, ‘dropped‘ in a so-called ‘Balkan’, ‘Folkloric’ context. Against such colonialist methodology, this book argues that there was  already a modernism in Albania, which was part of  the international modernism. It is in this context that this book reads the architectural work of Skënder Kristo Luarasi.

This book provides an historiographical account and formal analysis of the architectural work of Skënder Kristo Luarasi (1908-1976). Luarasi studied  architecture at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz). For forty years, until he died in 1976, Skënder Kristo Luarasi designed and administered the construction of more than 250 buildings throughout Albania. Relying on original drawings and archival material, this book punctuates key moments of  Luarasi’s oeuvre by staging it as an integral part of the Modern Architecture in Albania. Modernism in Albania is often perceived as an imported affair, without a history of its own, ‘dropped‘ in a so-called ‘Balkan’, ‘Folkloric’ context. Against such colonialist methodology, this book argues that there was  already a modernism in Albania, which was part of  the international modernism. It is in this context that this book reads the architectural work of Skënder Kristo Luarasi.