Opinion by Erblin Vukaj. First published in Albanian on Facebook on 28 June 2026; edited and translated for the website on 2 November 2026.
Enver Hoxha left behind volumes of memoirs, speeches and political interpretations. Even the preface to his selected works presented that legacy as an ideological guide. This was not simply an account of the past. It was an attempt to prescribe how the past should be read.
Edi Rama operates in a different system, using different means. The comparison does not equate the two regimes. It examines an ambition that those in power find difficult to restrain: the desire to govern the memory they leave behind.
From “Bread & Heart” to The Albanian Files, architecture appears not simply as a way of building, but as a political language for telling the story of a “new Albania”.
Edited by Anneke Abhelakh, the book includes a foreword by Rama and contributions from 60 architectural studios. Its publisher presents it as an exploration of Albania’s transformation and the experiences of architects working in the country. That is the publication’s stated premise. My reading is that this narrative can also serve as an editorial monument to the Rama era.
Anneke Abhelakh is not the propaganda apparatus of a dictatorship. But when the story of transformation is told chiefly by the architects participating in it, we should also ask about the voices outside that frame: residents, critics and those who bear the costs of change.
Rama’s honorary fellowship from RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects, likewise highlights his contribution to architecture and public space. That recognition does not settle the debate about how decisions have been made in Albania.
Once, power sought to write history in the language of ideology. Today, it can do so in the language of architecture, aesthetics and urban transformation.
The problem is not that books or exhibitions are produced. It is when the narrative of those in power seeks to replace our shared history. Power is not content simply to govern. It also wants to determine how it will be remembered.
AI illustration based on the photograph of the book “The Albanian Files: Freedom and Architecture” used in the author’s original Facebook post on 28 June 2026.