Lecture
Insights on The Flamingo Revolution in Albania
- Date
- Thursday 17 September 2026
- Time
- Location
-
Spui Campus
Spui 5
2511 BL The Hague - Room
- SPUI 3B.38, The Hague
In May 2026, residents of Zvërnec, near Vlorë, found a stretch of coastline they'd long accessed freely enclosed overnight in barbed wire. When a villager was dragged away by masked private security in full view of state police, who did nothing, footage of the incident spread fast and public anger followed. Since then, Albanians have taken to the streets—in Tirana, for over 100 consecutive days now, in what's become known as the Flamingo Revolution, named for the pink flamingos of the Nartë lagoon, a protected wetland being cleared for a multi-billion-dollar luxury development tied to Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and backed by Prime Minister Edi Rama. The project spans the former military Island of Sazan to the mainland shoreline itself.
What started as a fight over one project has grown into something larger: a reckoning with a development model in which public interests are increasingly sacrificed in favour of political elites, oligarchs and foreign investors. What does this movement build upon? Why did it take this shape now? What has it achieved—and why is architecture itself under scrutiny as an instrument of land grab, dispossession, environmental destruction, and political power?
Ahead of the International Architecture Biennale of Rotterdam, members of the Albanian Artists and Architects of the Flamingo Revolution will hold a public talk, sharing reflections from the ground and situating the movement within Albania's longer history of protest and resistance.
Speakers
Dea Buza
Architect, Lecturer, Researcher based in Tirana, AL
Kedis Burrja
Urban Planner, Landscape Architect and Activist based in Tirana, AL
In collaboration with:
Albanian Artists and Architects for the Flamingo Revolution
This event is part of the interdisciplinary research project “Seeds of Solidarity”, funded by a Leiden University KIEM grant