Sustainable building design through passive measures

Art-Tek Tulltorja is designed as a climate-forward, art and technology district nurturing the next generation of creatives and entrepreneurs in Kosovo and beyond — a transformation from bricks to bytes. Located in a former brick factory in the heart of the capital city of Prishtina, Tulltorja’s design holistically approaches sustainability through the reuse of abandoned buildings, extensive solar capture, recycling bricks and industrial debris, natural ventilation, greywater irrigation, extensive tree and vegetation planting, and shading from ample greenery to foster a more livable city. Tulltorja’s innovative designs invite cultural innovation, discovery, and connection to the past, and climate resiliency in the Balkans and beyond.

Efficient construction and operations

Operational Eco-Park: Art-Tek Tulltorja’s on-site robot named “Tull-e” (“tulle” in Albanian means brick; “tulltorja” means brick factory) incorporates old crushed brick and industrial debris into a cement amalgam used to create colorful pavers, walls and partition blocks, street furniture, landscape elements, retention walls, and more.

Carbon sinks: Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT)/mass timber used in building construction store carbon dioxide for the entire lifespan of the building.

Net Positive Energy: Extensive rooftop solar panels generate more energy than what is consumed on-site, returning energy to the grid and supporting the site’s community center, education programs, and non-profit cultural programs.

Landscape & Biodiversity Integration

Kosovo’s current over-reliance on coal mining contributes to poor air quality. Other factors limiting biodiversity and public health include unmitigated industrial pollutants throughout the site. Art-Tek Tulltorja pro-actively remediates the site, promoting short and long-term ecological benefits:

• Structural reinforcement to the hillsides increases the ground’s stability, enabling native plants to take root, flourish, and attract pollinator species.
• Phyto-remediating plants filter, extract, and accumulate suspended chemicals from the water and soil, improving their nutritive function for flora and fauna.
• Bioswales, retention ponds, and water channels distribute greywater throughout the site, inviting riparian wildlife to flourish.

Land use & Transformation

Previous eras of disinvestment resulted in a lack of parks, pedestrian pathways, and storm-water management, leading to dangerous mudslides abutting some of the site’s current buildings. Art-Tek Tulltorja transforms this previously unusable dumping ground into the country’s largest walkable urban park. Pedestrian pathways connect low-income neighborhoods to the city center and low-carbon transportation. Nested within this oasis are facilities to catalyze Kosovo’s economic and cultural regeneration:

• Workforce Training: classrooms, Maker Spaces, co-working spaces.
• Culture: amphitheater, performing art center, studios, showrooms.
• Hospitality: art-hotel, restaurants.
• Community Center: adult education, childcare, social services.

Art-Tek Tulltorja’s design builds off of iterative participatory workshops led by local NGOs and The World Bank from 2000–2003. Participating stakeholders include youth, artists, social workers, teachers, community advocates, entrepreneurs, and neighbors from the historically underserved neighborhoods surrounding the site. Art-Tek Tulltorja’s design incorporates stakeholders’ priorities, which include:

• Structural improvements to stabilize unstable hillsides
• Park and recreational spaces
• On-site community center for early childhood and adult education
• Maker spaces, training facilities, and innovation incubators to boost technical skills
• Facilities to produce and showcase art, music, theater, and performance

Community Impact and Resilience

Kosovo is Europe’s youngest country: 51% of the population are under the age of 26 and face a wide employment and training gap. Other challenges include an unskilled workforce, cultural outmigration (“brain drain”), urban de-densification, and economic stagnation. Art-Tek Tulltorja is designed as a vibrant destination nurturing the talent, collaboration, and innovation needed for economic regeneration and bolstering the newly independent country’s cultural esteem. As the country’s most significant infrastructural investment, Art-Tek Tulltorja’s restorative landscaping transforms the site from a high-risk flood area into an ecologically rich zone in the heart of Prishtina and sets new standards for sustainability in the Balkans and beyond.

Financial Feasibility

Art-Tek Tulltorja strengthens Kosovo’s long-term economic resilience by investing in a skilled workforce, incubating next-generation creatives and entrepreneurs, and building a safe, livable city.

Early stage capital investors: The World Bank, European Union, NGOs, and public-private partnerships.

Long-term revenue-generating strategies:

• Venue rentals to start-ups, tech companies, and cultural organizations
• Rentals and services for state-of-the-art fabrication, recording, motion capture, and performing art facilities; film production and editing suites
• Ticket sales from performing art events
• Retail and sales tax from boutiques, industrial design showrooms, ateliers, galleries, and hospitality amenities (art-hotel, restaurants)

Aesthetic Qualities and Cultural Integration

Art-Tek Tulltorja’s exciting architecture, landscaping, public art, adaptive reuse, and preserved heritage features (smoke stacks, ovens, bricks) include:

• Geometric patterns echoed across the site’s paved areas, metal mesh, street furniture, and planters give a new twist to triangular motifs found in traditional Kosovar textiles, architecture, and metal filigree
• The bright red metal mesh cladding infrastructural “cores” retrofit industrial buildings with stairwells, HVAC, public toilets, and utilities, serving both interior and exterior spaces
• Multi-story outdoor slides slice through the hillside and invite play
• Colorful pavers run across the site, crawl onto the walls, and introduce greenery as horizontal and vertical gardens