Between Ideology and Identity. A Comparative Study of Socialist Hotel Architecture in Albania and the Balkans

Abstract This paper examines the ideological foundations and architectural development of Albania’s socialist-era hotels, placing them in the Balkan context and Eastern Europe’s reconstruction following World War II. It explores how communist governments used tourism infrastructure, especially hotels, as a socio-political instrument to support ideological narratives through architectural form in addition to promoting state-approved leisure. The study looks at common typologies that reflected global modernist tendencies while incorporating regional socialist values, all while drawing on comparative case studies. The study focuses specifically on Albania’s “Rational Period” and highlights important architectural traits that indicate the rigidity and control of the communist state. In terms of design, usage, and ideological function, the paper identifies both common trends and distinctive national adaptations through comparison with those in other communist regimes, such as Bulgaria’s state-run Black Sea hotel zones and Yugoslavia’s mixed-economy resort models. During the Rational Socialist Era in Albania, hotel design placed a strong emphasis on geometric repetition, formal austerity, and practical clarity – elements that were strongly associated with the regime’s ideology. In cities like Tirana, Gjirokastra, Elbasan and Shkodër, hotels had two purposes: they were places of political control and foreign diplomacy, as well as tangible symbols of socialist advancement. The seaside typologies along the Adriatic and Ionian beaches, on the other hand, reflected pan-European experiments in leisure architecture by emphasizing mass accommodation and spatial collectivism. The research advances our understanding of how architecture was used to create a communal identity – one that was both unified and contested – across the socialist Balkans by interpreting the spatial and symbolic language of socialist tourism infrastructure. In its concluding section, the paper calls for a re-evaluation of socialist hotel architecture not as obsolete or politically burdened relics, but as vital components of the region’s architectural heritage Keywords Socialist architecture, hotel typologies, ideology, form