WEBVTT 00:00:10.611 --> 00:00:13.261 After the war, there was a foreigner in Prishtina, 00:00:14.242 --> 00:00:16.230 and he lost the way to his hotel 00:00:16.230 --> 00:00:19.883 he was in the main suite. 00:00:19.883 --> 00:00:21.473 He asked somebody, he said: 00:00:21.473 --> 00:00:23.923 "Please, can you tell me, where is the Grand Hotel?" 00:00:23.923 --> 00:00:27.024 The boy said: "Do you see the end of the street?" 00:00:27.024 --> 00:00:30.094 The building there? He said: Yes, I see it! 00:00:30.094 --> 00:00:33.275 That's not the Grand Hotel, it's the one on the right. 00:00:33.275 --> 00:00:34.913 (Laughs) 00:00:34.913 --> 00:00:37.974 So, my way of being an architect 00:00:37.974 --> 00:00:43.075 was also very irregular and round. 00:00:43.075 --> 00:00:46.156 I studied architecture in two universities 00:00:46.156 --> 00:00:47.854 for almost ten years and when I finished 00:00:47.854 --> 00:00:51.086 I was really not so sure about what to do 00:00:51.086 --> 00:00:53.767 and where to begin, so I thought 00:00:53.767 --> 00:00:55.917 I will take more time. 00:00:55.917 --> 00:00:59.538 And started to travel and I said, 00:00:59.538 --> 00:01:02.418 if i didn't understand architecture in school 00:01:02.418 --> 00:01:04.858 maybe I should go myself and see, 00:01:04.858 --> 00:01:08.669 and actually, what i discovered was that, 00:01:08.669 --> 00:01:10.899 when you are in the building, when you're visiting the building, 00:01:10.899 --> 00:01:12.759 you spend time. 00:01:12.759 --> 00:01:14.808 You go there, sometimes in some places 00:01:14.808 --> 00:01:17.519 you spend a week there or three days 00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:20.359 and you arrive there you want to spend some more time. 00:01:20.359 --> 00:01:23.419 So what do you do? You look. You look, and after a while 00:01:23.419 --> 00:01:25.610 you try to see 00:01:25.610 --> 00:01:28.093 because you can't see in the very beginning. 00:01:28.093 --> 00:01:30.011 Actually is very important to see. 00:01:30.011 --> 00:01:32.481 If you draw and I used to draw a lot, 00:01:32.481 --> 00:01:34.952 it takes time. People tell 00:01:34.952 --> 00:01:37.352 You have a very good hand, 00:01:37.352 --> 00:01:40.432 Actually, it's not the hand who's drawing. 00:01:40.432 --> 00:01:43.517 It's the head, it's the eyes, it's the look. 00:01:43.517 --> 00:01:45.984 You can not draw if you can not look. 00:01:45.984 --> 00:01:48.203 So you have to learn to look. 00:01:48.203 --> 00:01:50.304 If you see, then you can learn to draw. 00:01:50.304 --> 00:01:52.154 It's very easy, you don't have to think. 00:01:52.154 --> 00:01:56.174 (Applause) 00:01:56.174 --> 00:02:00.305 If you would ask me to say only one place, 00:02:00.305 --> 00:02:02.065 this is TED, we have to do it shortly, 00:02:02.065 --> 00:02:06.655 only one place where which I would choose between all I have seen 00:02:06.655 --> 00:02:09.426 there is a city in India, Ahmedabad, 00:02:09.426 --> 00:02:11.776 which has four buildings of le Corbusier 00:02:11.776 --> 00:02:13.767 and one building of Louis Kahn, 00:02:13.767 --> 00:02:15.487 a school actually, a university. 00:02:15.487 --> 00:02:18.747 These two architects are the ones which 00:02:18.747 --> 00:02:21.367 are the modern architects 00:02:21.367 --> 00:02:24.047 which have influenced ... 00:02:24.047 --> 00:02:25.829 everything I have done 00:02:25.829 --> 00:02:27.109 By their way of building 00:02:27.109 --> 00:02:29.149 also by the way of thinking 00:02:29.149 --> 00:02:32.828 and particularly one of these four buildings 00:02:32.828 --> 00:02:35.089 of le Corbusier, this one 00:02:35.089 --> 00:02:37.049 is exactly in this building that I 00:02:37.049 --> 00:02:40.450 had a feeling that I had something in my hand. 00:02:40.450 --> 00:02:42.591 A moment when you think 00:02:42.591 --> 00:02:44.550 like you holding something? 00:02:44.550 --> 00:02:46.492 I wouldn't call it a truth 00:02:46.492 --> 00:02:48.432 but something really very strong. 00:02:48.432 --> 00:02:52.181 And I said: "Well, OK, now I want to become an architect." 00:02:52.181 --> 00:02:53.932 and the next thing to do 00:02:53.932 --> 00:02:56.353 i said, I want to go home. 00:02:56.353 --> 00:02:58.072 And I went to Prizren first. 00:02:58.072 --> 00:02:59.873 This is 1913. 00:02:59.873 --> 00:03:02.603 Prizren was born out of two very simple rules. 00:03:02.603 --> 00:03:05.283 One, is the rule of "no harm" 00:03:05.283 --> 00:03:06.873 You don't do to your neigbors what 00:03:06.873 --> 00:03:08.973 you wouldn't like them to do to you. 00:03:08.973 --> 00:03:11.834 the second is "beauty without arrogance". 00:03:11.834 --> 00:03:17.744 (Applause) 00:03:17.744 --> 00:03:21.155 These two principles could make a city like this. 00:03:21.155 --> 00:03:22.565 it's very simple. 00:03:22.565 --> 00:03:25.616 So what I found was this 00:03:25.616 --> 00:03:28.536 and this to me was ugliness with arrogance. 00:03:28.536 --> 00:03:31.655 (Applause) 00:03:34.426 --> 00:03:37.365 I have something worse than this! 00:03:37.365 --> 00:03:40.316 (Laughs) 00:03:40.316 --> 00:03:43.006 There is no limit in bad things also in good ones. 00:03:43.006 --> 00:03:45.156 In the very begining in Kosovo I realize 00:03:45.156 --> 00:03:47.417 that I wanted to change things 00:03:47.417 --> 00:03:48.687 I came there to change things. 00:03:48.687 --> 00:03:50.788 But you cannot change the otherss 00:03:50.788 --> 00:03:52.670 you can change only yourself. 00:03:52.670 --> 00:03:54.261 and i didn't want to change myself 00:03:54.261 --> 00:03:56.166 in a way of becoming like the others 00:03:56.166 --> 00:03:59.448 I wanted to stay with my beliefs 00:03:59.448 --> 00:04:02.488 but I wanted to change other things 00:04:02.488 --> 00:04:04.269 and i had to find a way 00:04:04.269 --> 00:04:06.019 so I could speak to the people 00:04:06.019 --> 00:04:06.850 to my people. 00:04:06.850 --> 00:04:08.469 So they would understand what I mean 00:04:08.469 --> 00:04:11.139 and I was sure they will understand. 00:04:11.139 --> 00:04:12.420 So I tried to find a language 00:04:12.420 --> 00:04:13.330 a common language 00:04:13.330 --> 00:04:14.750 that could speak to them 00:04:14.750 --> 00:04:16.670 and could be what I think 00:04:16.670 --> 00:04:20.041 So I concentrated on one thing 00:04:20.041 --> 00:04:24.122 that the architecture should improve people lives 00:04:24.122 --> 00:04:25.592 If you ask me 00:04:25.592 --> 00:04:26.892 What is a good architecture? 00:04:26.892 --> 00:04:29.612 There is one thing that all good architecture should have 00:04:29.612 --> 00:04:36.138 Architecture should improve your life 00:04:36.138 --> 00:04:39.013 should be something that makes your living better 00:04:39.013 --> 00:04:43.454 Cities could be a better place to live 00:04:43.454 --> 00:04:44.735 (Applause) 00:04:44.735 --> 00:04:45.846 A school should be a place 00:04:45.846 --> 00:04:47.595 where you can get inspired to learn 00:04:47.595 --> 00:04:49.009 a house should be a place 00:04:49.009 --> 00:04:50.795 where you have a well being 00:04:50.795 --> 00:04:52.696 A room should be a place 00:04:52.696 --> 00:04:54.666 which inspires happiness 00:04:54.666 --> 00:04:56.745 This is my daughter in the top of my house 00:04:56.745 --> 00:04:58.227 I don't have to tell you 00:04:58.227 --> 00:04:59.776 that she's happy there. 00:04:59.776 --> 00:05:01.646 One of the basic things 00:05:01.646 --> 00:05:03.246 in my work was that I was 00:05:03.246 --> 00:05:05.887 always limited financially. 00:05:05.887 --> 00:05:09.227 All my clients had very little means 00:05:09.227 --> 00:05:12.077 so I had to find a way 00:05:12.077 --> 00:05:14.268 to make things with very little 00:05:14.268 --> 00:05:16.909 and making things with very little, 00:05:16.909 --> 00:05:19.758 it's learning the simplicity. 00:05:19.758 --> 00:05:21.758 One of the elements that you'll see 00:05:21.758 --> 00:05:23.579 my buildings is concrete. 00:05:23.579 --> 00:05:24.928 And many people ask me, 00:05:24.928 --> 00:05:26.869 Why do you make concrete buildings? 00:05:26.869 --> 00:05:28.770 We didn't have a choice, actually, 00:05:28.770 --> 00:05:30.140 concrete is the only material 00:05:30.140 --> 00:05:31.114 we could afford. 00:05:31.114 --> 00:05:32.399 We couldn't afford stone 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:34.390 We couldn't afford marble 00:05:34.390 --> 00:05:35.519 but concrete, yes. 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:37.020 You could do good things with concrete 00:05:37.020 --> 00:05:38.731 if you respect it 00:05:38.731 --> 00:05:39.672 and if you find a way 00:05:39.672 --> 00:05:41.161 to make it real, 00:05:41.161 --> 00:05:42.911 to make it only once, 00:05:42.911 --> 00:05:44.412 You don't put a second layer 00:05:44.412 --> 00:05:45.893 if you don't have to. 00:05:45.893 --> 00:05:47.212 Buqalla Pools & Hotel, 00:05:47.212 --> 00:05:49.402 was my biggest commission 00:05:49.402 --> 00:05:51.312 and it took me five years 00:05:51.312 --> 00:05:53.142 to build everything. 00:05:53.142 --> 00:05:55.332 It was my biggest project, 00:05:55.332 --> 00:05:56.703 but actually it's the one which 00:05:56.703 --> 00:05:58.514 I had trouble to explain. 00:05:58.514 --> 00:06:00.393 There were two or three things which started, 00:06:00.393 --> 00:06:03.614 One was that, I wanted a place where the man 00:06:03.614 --> 00:06:05.308 can meet the nature. 00:06:05.308 --> 00:06:07.774 It sounds very theoretical 00:06:07.774 --> 00:06:10.194 but imagine, you come to this place 00:06:10.194 --> 00:06:12.496 to forget you everyday life, 00:06:12.496 --> 00:06:14.435 your problems and you want to feel well. 00:06:14.435 --> 00:06:15.956 So I wanted a place where you 00:06:15.956 --> 00:06:16.966 could feel well. 00:06:16.966 --> 00:06:18.616 Where you're not relaxed, 00:06:18.616 --> 00:06:19.866 but just feel good. 00:06:19.866 --> 00:06:21.465 Maybe get inspired to do things. 00:06:21.465 --> 00:06:25.249 The second thing was, I wanted architeture 00:06:25.249 --> 00:06:29.477 to be related to the nature. 00:06:29.477 --> 00:06:31.507 If you imagine architecture here 00:06:31.507 --> 00:06:33.558 and nature here and something in between. 00:06:33.558 --> 00:06:35.580 This thing in between is a sort of 00:06:35.580 --> 00:06:38.058 human landscape, 00:06:38.058 --> 00:06:38.989 it's not the nature 00:06:38.989 --> 00:06:41.028 and it's not the inside. 00:06:41.028 --> 00:06:44.038 It's sort of between nature and architecture. 00:06:44.038 --> 00:06:45.279 So, these two elements 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:48.404 made this complex, this architecture. 00:06:48.404 --> 00:06:54.149 (Applause) 00:06:54.149 --> 00:06:55.840 I realize during this five years 00:06:55.840 --> 00:06:57.660 that it was very difficult to practice 00:06:57.660 --> 00:06:59.280 architecture in Kosovo 00:06:59.280 --> 00:07:00.281 the way I was used to do it 00:07:00.281 --> 00:07:01.962 in Switzerland. 00:07:01.962 --> 00:07:03.022 I had to adapt. 00:07:03.022 --> 00:07:06.082 One of the really basic things that happen 00:07:06.082 --> 00:07:08.111 is that architecture I think in Albania 00:07:08.111 --> 00:07:10.152 and Kosovo is the same. 00:07:10.152 --> 00:07:13.683 We are in a process of changes. 00:07:13.683 --> 00:07:18.364 Building is still like in maybe 200 years ago 00:07:18.364 --> 00:07:20.304 where owners hires the builders, 00:07:20.304 --> 00:07:21.844 to build their houses 00:07:21.844 --> 00:07:23.914 and they don't need architects. 00:07:23.914 --> 00:07:26.244 Sometimes they buy papers from architects 00:07:26.244 --> 00:07:27.984 and they give it to the builders 00:07:27.984 --> 00:07:29.513 but they cannot replace us. 00:07:29.513 --> 00:07:32.737 So, I had only one choice 00:07:32.737 --> 00:07:34.251 to do something well 00:07:34.251 --> 00:07:37.376 that was to become a master builder 00:07:37.376 --> 00:07:38.546 by myself. 00:07:38.546 --> 00:07:43.966 (Applause) 00:07:43.966 --> 00:07:45.688 These are the real builders, 00:07:45.688 --> 00:07:47.488 the owner was not there. 00:07:47.488 --> 00:07:49.617 So they were relaxing. 00:07:49.617 --> 00:07:52.658 This is a very small house, 00:07:52.658 --> 00:07:54.058 the very smallest I have done. 00:07:54.058 --> 00:07:55.857 It's a family of four 00:07:55.857 --> 00:07:57.270 and they didn't have a lot of money 00:07:57.270 --> 00:07:59.038 So, they wanted a really little house 00:07:59.038 --> 00:08:01.438 which fulfills all their needs. 00:08:01.438 --> 00:08:04.248 I made a sort of strategic plan 00:08:04.248 --> 00:08:05.340 how to do it. 00:08:05.340 --> 00:08:07.569 I developed four points. 00:08:07.569 --> 00:08:09.880 Which can be a sort of generic 00:08:09.880 --> 00:08:12.329 to generate architecture in this situation. 00:08:12.329 --> 00:08:14.520 One of these was to make an efficient plan. 00:08:14.520 --> 00:08:16.670 An efficient plan is like you plan 00:08:16.670 --> 00:08:18.299 that the life in the house 00:08:18.299 --> 00:08:20.830 should be really very well organized 00:08:20.830 --> 00:08:22.021 and it works well 00:08:22.021 --> 00:08:23.240 not one centimeter lost. 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:26.222 The second thing was, we wanted to use 00:08:26.222 --> 00:08:28.373 local labor and materials. 00:08:28.373 --> 00:08:30.203 People who built it, they lived in the same place 00:08:30.203 --> 00:08:32.892 and the materials were coming from near, 00:08:32.892 --> 00:08:35.582 so they were cheaper. 00:08:35.582 --> 00:08:38.194 We used the passive solar energy. 00:08:38.194 --> 00:08:39.723 It costs nothing. 00:08:39.723 --> 00:08:41.464 If you have a lot of windows in the south, 00:08:41.464 --> 00:08:44.285 you have sun in winter, and shade in summer 00:08:44.285 --> 00:08:46.214 because the sun is high. 00:08:46.214 --> 00:08:49.934 (Applause) 00:08:49.934 --> 00:08:52.566 The fourth element was 00:08:52.566 --> 00:08:54.295 to design and build everything. 00:08:54.295 --> 00:08:56.565 We designed lights 00:08:56.565 --> 00:08:57.787 we designed furniture, 00:08:57.787 --> 00:08:59.086 we designed many many things 00:08:59.086 --> 00:09:00.558 it was cheaper to design and build things 00:09:00.558 --> 00:09:02.137 than buy ready made 00:09:02.137 --> 00:09:03.252 which were ugly anyway. 00:09:03.252 --> 00:09:05.406 Dida house was much bigger 00:09:05.406 --> 00:09:06.532 maybe two three times bigger 00:09:06.532 --> 00:09:08.237 but it didn't cost two three times more. 00:09:08.237 --> 00:09:10.657 Dida house is a holiday house. 00:09:10.657 --> 00:09:12.662 They don't live there all the time. 00:09:12.662 --> 00:09:16.718 In Kosovo we have very extreme climate. 00:09:16.718 --> 00:09:19.219 The winter is very cold. 00:09:19.219 --> 00:09:22.178 The summer is very hot. 00:09:22.178 --> 00:09:24.299 So traditionally, we have to houses, 00:09:24.299 --> 00:09:25.541 those who can afford. 00:09:25.541 --> 00:09:27.159 A winter house and a summer house. 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:30.822 So I thought, maybe I should do a house 00:09:30.822 --> 00:09:32.650 which has these two 00:09:32.650 --> 00:09:34.660 inside and outside. 00:09:34.660 --> 00:09:38.802 Then I related the inside and outside 00:09:38.802 --> 00:09:41.102 with continuous space 00:09:41.102 --> 00:09:43.623 so you have a space which does not stop inside 00:09:43.623 --> 00:09:45.072 it goes outside and comes inside 00:09:45.072 --> 00:09:46.552 and than it goes up and it goes down 00:09:46.552 --> 00:09:52.633 so everything is related to each other 00:09:52.633 --> 00:09:54.503 and when you relate everything to each other 00:09:54.503 --> 00:09:57.503 you gain a sort of harmony 00:09:57.503 --> 00:10:00.094 when things are at their place. 00:10:00.094 --> 00:10:04.508 When something happens there is some poetry there as well. 00:10:04.508 --> 00:10:07.589 (Applause) 00:10:07.726 --> 00:10:09.731 The Mother Theresa museum is in Prizren 00:10:09.731 --> 00:10:13.962 You know, Mother Theresa's parents got married in a Catholic Church in Prizren 00:10:13.982 --> 00:10:17.262 and they had a little plot in the front and wanted to build a museum. 00:10:17.262 --> 00:10:23.444 So, I imagined an old Prizren house, with three floors, 00:10:23.444 --> 00:10:27.014 and when you actually go inside 00:10:27.014 --> 00:10:29.590 is one space. 00:10:29.590 --> 00:10:32.136 I had this idea of making really a one space . 00:10:32.136 --> 00:10:35.984 Is like a child dream that you can walk around up and down 00:10:35.984 --> 00:10:39.548 because inside of the house is like someone has taken down all the floors 00:10:39.548 --> 00:10:41.571 and emptied everything that is inside. 00:10:41.571 --> 00:10:43.176 Turning it into an empty space. 00:10:43.176 --> 00:10:46.986 Because, you know, architecture is not the material 00:10:46.986 --> 00:10:49.456 is the emptiness. 00:10:49.456 --> 00:10:51.827 It is what actually is not there. 00:10:51.827 --> 00:10:54.017 It's the nothing. 00:10:54.017 --> 00:10:58.257 (Applause) 00:10:58.257 --> 00:11:01.059 I was doing a theater competition once, 00:11:01.059 --> 00:11:05.908 and I had a guy who was producing theatrical pieces help me 00:11:05.908 --> 00:11:08.479 make a better competition. 00:11:08.479 --> 00:11:09.749 We lost it! 00:11:09.749 --> 00:11:12.289 However, I understood one thing. 00:11:12.289 --> 00:11:16.041 The guy told me "I do not need my theater to be beautiful" 00:11:16.041 --> 00:11:18.860 "I needed to generate beauty" 00:11:18.860 --> 00:11:23.050 "I want a theater which can help me make beautiful pieces" 00:11:23.050 --> 00:11:25.292 I do not care if the theater itself is beautiful or not" 00:11:25.292 --> 00:11:27.957 So, I was thinking and I realized that NOTE Paragraph 00:11:27.957 --> 00:11:30.671 (Applause) 00:11:30.671 --> 00:11:33.643 Architecture is not the beauty 00:11:33.643 --> 00:11:37.172 it is rather the capacity to generate beauty. 00:11:37.172 --> 00:11:41.082 let me finish with a little story from the Venice Biennale 00:11:41.082 --> 00:11:44.483 where I represented Kosovo. 00:11:44.483 --> 00:11:50.264 I did a tower with "shkami" or stool in English 00:11:50.264 --> 00:11:52.124 which is an old piece of Albanian furniture 00:11:52.124 --> 00:11:59.916 meaning a stool and at the same time a rock. 00:11:59.916 --> 00:12:03.177 So it shows that it is a very old thing 00:12:03.177 --> 00:12:07.426 Probably people sat on the rock while making the stool long time ago 00:12:07.426 --> 00:12:12.556 So it relates strongly to our tradition 00:12:12.556 --> 00:12:15.748 but not to one specific one, but rather those of thousands of years. 00:12:15.748 --> 00:12:19.737 So I chose this old traditional element 00:12:19.737 --> 00:12:23.488 to make this modern instalation. 00:12:23.488 --> 00:12:29.748 This because I wanted to show the relation between tradition and modernity. 00:12:29.748 --> 00:12:34.050 But something happened that I did not expect. 00:12:34.050 --> 00:12:38.620 I realized that if you would stand in the middle of it 00:12:38.620 --> 00:12:40.151 and if you would speak 00:12:40.151 --> 00:12:43.001 you would hear an echo coming from all sides. 00:12:43.001 --> 00:12:44.651 And I watched the visitors who did it 00:12:44.651 --> 00:12:51.082 and once they did it they would start to laugh. 00:12:51.082 --> 00:12:54.991 It was so beautiful to hear your voice 00:12:54.991 --> 00:12:57.812 as you do not listen to your self very often. 00:12:57.812 --> 00:13:02.612 They were tired of seeing Biennale 00:13:02.612 --> 00:13:04.303 and they would come back from the tower 00:13:04.303 --> 00:13:05.554 with a smile. 00:13:05.554 --> 00:13:06.934 Suddenly the tower was loosing all 00:13:06.934 --> 00:13:11.024 its significance, all its wait 00:13:11.024 --> 00:13:12.264 and symbolic 00:13:12.264 --> 00:13:14.084 and became something which 00:13:14.084 --> 00:13:15.895 could transmit instant happiness. 00:13:15.895 --> 00:13:18.855 Thank You 00:13:18.855 --> 00:13:21.651 (Applause)