Albanian National Historical Museum, Tirana, Albania

Albania has an uncomfortable history.

The competition brief called for the complete rehabilitation of Albania’s national history museum.

This is an uncomfortable museum.

WW’s proposal is for a museum cleaved in two, holding two views of Albania that should never be at ease with one another: The History of History and The History of the Future.

The History of History is a constructed history. It consists of categories, timelines, narratives, clarity, and facts…at least as much as we can know them. This is an instructive history, without which we can hardly claim to be a civilization.

The History of the Future is a discursive history. It thrives on speculations, unpredictable outcomes, and ambitions. This is a hopeful history, without which our optimisms have no choice but to fall silent.

Albania’s two histories are inseparable. Each is animated, prodded, and agitated by its never-ending orbit around the other.