Anila Shehaj

Anila Shehaj is an Albanian architect and researcher based in Berlin. She trained at IUAV University of Venice and is a registered architect in Italy. Her research addresses housing issues, urban and labor informality in construction, and the political economy of the built environment.

Her master's thesis analyzed the use of propaganda as an instrument of urban design in post-socialist Tirana. Earlier, an academic exchange between IUAV and the University of Hong Kong led to her participation in "This is Hong Kong," a project presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale, examining the image of the city as a fragmented, collective construct.

Her professional practice has included private commissions — primarily residential renovations — collaborations with artistic collectives, and consulting work for local administrations in Italy. She leads Shadow Builders, an ongoing research project on the undocumented labor that maintains Europe's built heritage, from Albanian craftsmen restoring Unesco-listed dry-stone walls in Puglia to Polish workers commuting overnight to construction sites in Berlin.

Her current project, Anatomy of a Scam, examines housing fraud and bureaucratic opacity in the Berlin rental market. It is published through Zimmerdruck, the micro-press she founded, and was selected for the Berlin Founders Program in 2025 and presented at the most recent edition of 48 Stunden Neukölln.