In the picture: Xhemil Shehu (Photo Ti-Press).
Shehu Architects is a design studio located in Lugano, Switzerland and Prishtina, Kosovo. We have experienced team of architects in interior design and construction for more than 20 years.
In the following article wrote by BancaStato you can read more about us.
In Kosovo, to express gratitude it is said "I pray in your honor" and the interlocutor replies "preserve your honor". This beautiful dialogue summarizes the values in which he believes and on which the Kosovar-born Swiss architect Xhemil Shehu bases his activity, Jimmy for his friends. Gritty, stubborn, individualistic, to his testone said, he founded his private and professional life on transparency, a sense of honor and trust, values that are unfortunately becoming obsolete in the business world.
"For me - he says - the important thing is to be at peace with myself, to be able to look at myself in the mirror every morning without blushing and enjoying the support and esteem of my family. In BancaStato I found a partner who shares my values. They showed me trust and respect despite being foreigners and they didn't know me. I will never forget this - he states with emotion. And if I had to live another hundred years I would continue to work with them. The same respect - he continues - that BancaStato has shown to me I try to prove it every day in relations with the suppliers, which have been the same for years, and with the workers who work on my construction sites ".
So far in Ticino he has built, with the funding of BancaStato, three buildings in Caslano,
he is currently completing a building in Lugano, while construction of four villas and a two-family house in Manno will begin shortly. He is stubborn and individualistic, as we said, because of his constructions he is at the same time architect, director of works,
lender and seller. "In harmony with my principles - he says - I do not speculate. Of course I work like everybody to earn, but not only ... I'm happy with a profit that I consider reasonable ”. His first delicate investment in Ticino with BancaStato was linked to a project of three buildings in Caslano. "It was difficult - he says - to find funding for three buildings at once. They then advised me to start with one and then, depending on the results, I could proceed with the other two. It was a precious advice, which allowed me to start and continue my activity in Ticino ”.
Xhemil Shehu was born 57 years ago in Gjakova in Kosovo, about eighty kilometers from the capital Pristina and represents the thirteenth generation of an influential family in his country. After studying architecture in Sarajevo, he worked in his hometown for the renovation and conservation of the historic center. Thanks to this project he then won a scholarship in St. Gallen and had the opportunity to visit Europe. During one of these trips he discovered the Ticino municipality of Paradiso and, fascinated by this place, said: "If I ever leave my country I will come to live in this paradise". But after the university research period, his stay in Switzerland was hampered by obtaining a residence permit. An issue that has been going on for years and was resolved thanks to his perseverance and some important professional successes in the cantons of Valais and Friborg. But attracted by the Ticino "Paradiso" Xhemil Shehu he then decided to settle in our Canton, where he first worked in an architectural firm, and finally he set up on his own. "The first five years - he says - I worked from Ticino for German-speaking Switzerland, where I carried out renovations and interior furnishings. Then, thanks to BancaStato, my Ticino real estate business started ”. Do you ever think of returning to Kosovo? "Two years ago I tried to open an architectural firm in Pristina. I was very confident. After having worked out various projects, I realized that it was difficult to implement them because the local real estate market was not open to new operators. Finally I became demoralized and returned to Ticino, to my second homeland, where I feel very well ”.