CityMakers Voices No.1 — Përparim Rama

Rama is the first guest of CityMakers Voices, a conversation series from the Holcim Foundation gathering the people whose decisions shape the cities we live in — mayors and architects, planners and patrons, financiers and engineers — for open discussion on the work of building better urban environments.

The series opens in Venice, on the occasion of the 2025 Holcim Foundation Awards, where Pristina took the Grand Prize for Europe with Art-Tek Tulltorja. In this conversation, Rama reflects on the journey from architectural practice to elected office, on the particular value architects bring to politics, and on the ambition behind Art-Tek Tulltorja — a project that turns industrial heritage into a platform for the creative and technological industries Pristina intends to attract and keep.

You trained as an architect in London, ran your own practice there for nearly three decades, and then returned to Kosovo to run for mayor. How did that happen?

I lived in London for 29 years, where I had my architecture and urban planning practice. I was invited to run for mayor about four and a half years ago, and it was a surprise — I had never been involved in politics. The party that invited me was an opposition party considered impossible to win the race. And when I hear impossible, I get excited, because I want to show that nothing is impossible. So I joined the race, I won, and I have been mayor for four years. I was recently re-elected, so I have another four-year term running the city.

Does the architectural training translate directly to the office?

Being a mayor is an extension of what I used to do, but at a different scale — at the city scale. It gives me greater power, knowing that I come from architecture and urban planning, and I understand how the city works, how it functions from multiple layers. I understand how to start thinking about the private sector, the public sector, the rules, regulations, and politics. Politics, of course, I had to learn about. But after four years, I have learned quite a bit. The city is in a great position to push ahead with transformation, to be creative, to be innovative, and to bring together synergetic forces from the private and public sectors to make something with a unique character. Pristina has to have its own unique character, its own emotion, that makes people want to be there, live there, create there, innovate there. It empowers people. How do we create a city that empowers people? This has been my mission.

Take us through Pristina as a place — the cultural energy, the momentum, the challenges.

After the war in 1999 and the NATO intervention that helped liberate the city and the country, people have been free to dream about and plan their own futures. Of course, all this had its difficulties. How do you start building structures, infrastructure, and logistics? How do you create laws and regulations for processes to fall into a city that provides platforms for people to be healthy and happy?

Pristina has benefited a lot from the diaspora — people who left the country during the war and made their lives in different parts of the world, learned how to build businesses, be professional, and be academic. Lately, they have been coming back and sharing all their know-how in city building, country building, and nation building. Including myself. I brought my family back, my children who were born in London, and my wife, who was born in the United States.

Pristina is a city in flux — more an abstract painting than a city set in its ways. Anyone who gets involved in it, in any field, can create their own story. Everybody who comes to the city experiences freedom of expression, freedom of creativity, and the possibility for innovation.

And the economic picture supports that?

We have very low tax — 10% on profit, no tax on dividends. A lot of businesses that are able to provide services globally through virtual means are setting up in Pristina, and youth come to work. We are attracting more young people from different parts of the world.

How do you keep these people there? You have to have the fusion — the mixture of art, culture, events, and gastronomy. Apart from a nice place to live and to work, you also need to be entertained and to enjoy life. Our push for Pristina is to create this healthy balance. And to remain aware of what is happening globally — the rise of artificial intelligence, the tech sector, and the prominence of the creative industry, where humans are still better positioned than AI to push things forward. These are the elements we are trying to mold the future of the city and the country around.

Why do architects make good mayors? You're far from the first architect to take this kind of office.

Architectural education — especially in London, still probably one of the best places in the world for architectural education — pushes you to work together in teams, to take into account multiple factors. How do you bring all these different parameters together in order to create a product that works for the client?

In the city, making it is a similar process: thinking creatively, thinking outside the box, resolving difficult tasks within a limited time, a limited budget, and a limited political will. The main difference between being an architect and being a mayor is that when you are dealing with projects, almost everything is known — budget, function, program, requirements, timeline, context, and location. You analyze everything and put a logical, dynamic plan forward.

Add to it the political aspect, which has absolutely no logic to it. When you learn to master also the logical elements, you learn a lot. Architectural education and profession, dealing with multiple parameters, is a great help. As architects we go through an education that structures us to deal with complex questions: how we think outside the box of making them work, how we always question law. What does this mean? How can you interpret this? If you ask the right question, you are halfway to the answer. If you frame it the right way, you almost get the answer by framing it. Thinking creatively while remaining within the legal framework — how do you talk about it, how do you frame it linguistically, how do you draw it or present it so that it makes sense and remains within the framework, but does the job within the timeline. It is an exciting process.

Let's talk about Art-Tek Tulltorja — the Grand Prize winner. What is the project, and why does it matter to you?

It is one of the projects closest to my heart. The site has been derelict for more than two or three decades — a landfill of rubbish. The bricks made there helped build the city and the country throughout, but the place fell derelict as a result of globalization, where it was cheaper to import bricks from other countries than to produce our own. Then came demolition of the old, and what would you do with the rubbish, the leftovers? Landfills like this one.

So we cleaned it up, just to see what was left, identified the ruins, then looked at what the city needed in the height of AI and creative design. We decided this could be a fantastic space for art and technology. And you need to fuse that with gastronomy, events, performance — elements that bring the city together, that become a synergy, an explosive hub of creativity.

We are super delighted the team won the Grand Prize — the best project in Europe — which tells us we selected the right people with the right design that puts Pristina on the map as a leader in this new approach: creative designs that think ahead about environment, that create hubs where the creative environment allows people to thrive. A holistic approach about the wellbeing of the people and how they connect to the environment, the wellbeing of the environment itself.

There's a bigger argument in there too — about what cities like Pristina can offer the rest of the world.

It is about cities that were last and their potential to become first. About giving hope. By putting this as an example globally — where we were, where we got to, where we are going — it becomes an example of hope for other cities, other countries that are struggling today. With a bit of trust and the ability to look within yourself, you can have your own unique story that becomes interesting for the world, because it is its own story. A unique storytelling approach, based on a process that is factual, that cares about people, that cares about nature, can put cities on a pedestal that other countries or cities can look toward. It can unlock ideas about how we re-look at some European cities, or global cities, that have reached their best but feel stuck, lost energy. How can we puncture those and reinvigorate them?

Final question. For young architects, planners, and anyone interested in city shaping — where do you see the opportunity?

I was never interested in politics. I never understood politics. I was invited to run for mayor, and the exciting aspect for me was transforming the city from an urban-planning perspective. I showed a vision that people aligned with and voted for. I have been doing this for the past four years.

I understand how important it is for architects and urban planners to engage in politics, because we are the industry. We are the right people to envision the future for cities and for the way of life — the architects, the urban planners, the creative aspect of the industry.

As architects and urban planners, we work within a legal framework set by lawyers and other fields that do not understand the transformative power of design. The buildings we build, the environments we build, have a direct impact on our conscious and subconscious behavior. We need people in legislation, in laws, in regulations who understand the importance of what we design, how we design it, in relation to how that impacts human consciousness and subconscious behavior. Ultimately, we strive for cities with healthy and happy people. Healthy and happy people are more creative, more inclusive, more peaceful, more giving. I urge the community to get involved in politics, because we can make a better difference than anyone else for the cities and the world.