The first edition of the Bread & Heart festival gets underway on 5 June, an event bringing together around 150 of architecture's most influential figures. Taking place in Tirana over four days, the gathering is a celebration of both Albanian hospitality and also an opportunity to reflect critically on the past and present of the country's architecture, in order to build a better future for all cities and the environment.

On 6 June, founding partner Winy Maas will take part in a keynote alongside Stefano Boeri, as he explains his and MVRDV's first impressions on working in and with Albania, and what it was like to work on an array projects including the transformation of an existing brutalist pyramid, and the delivery of the country's tallest building to date. 

The ‘M’ of MVRDV, Founding Partner and Principal Architect Winy Maas has received international acclaim for his broad range of urban planning and building projects, across all typologies and scales. These are often self-generated, innovative, experimental, and theoretical. Driven by this dedication to green, user-defined, sustainable cities and spaces, Maas’ leadership drives many of the office’s award-winning projects, amongst them Rotterdam’s Markthal, Crystal Houses, the Tianjin Binhai Library, Valley and the first publicly accessible art depot in the world, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. 

• Date & Time: 6 June from 11:10 (CET)
• Location: Book Building, Rruga 28 Nëntori, Tirana
• More information on the event can be found here