OMA / David Gianotten has won the competition to revitalize the historic Selman Stërmasi Stadium and its surrounding area in central Tirana, Albania. The design expands the existing football park and makes it a catalyst for closer connections between different neighborhoods in the city.
OMA’s redesign of the Selman Stërmasi Stadium in Tirana expands the existing football park and inserts it into a new urban block. This transformation enables the stadium to become a catalyst for closer connections between different neighborhoods in the Albanian capital, emphasizing the role of football as common ground for urban culture.
The scheme comprises the stadium itself, which was built in 1956, a triangular plaza at its entrance, and new mixed-use spaces including apartments of various sizes, a hotel, offices, retail and F&B. It connects the upmarket neighborhood of Blloku with Komuna e Parisit, a rapidly developing residential and commercial district. The stadium’s seating capacity is increased from 9,500 to 15,000, and a new arena bowl introduces unobstructed stands and clear lines of sight for spectators while also reducing the distance between the stands and the pitch.
The stadium and adjacent buildings frame the open spaces, which are adaptable to match days and everyday life. The triangular plaza can function as a fan zone or a space for spontaneous activities. Facilities including a playground and multipurpose athletic courts dot the otherwise unprogrammed space to allow for social activities for football fans and neighbors throughout the year. The new block’s design alludes to the Stadium of Amantia, adapting a reference to this Illyrian structure from the third century BCE to a contemporary urban setting. The ancient stadium, built in what is today southern Albania, was characterized by stacked stone slabs and a pitch carved out of its mountainous site. In the new Selman Stërmasi Stadium block, the buildings are clad in natural stone and arranged to form peaks and terraces, creating an urban mountain range around the pitch. A high-rise residential tower on the triangular plaza, visible from Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, serves as both a landmark and a modern menhir. The result invokes both classical antiquity and geological time for a new national project in a changing city.
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