The Selman Stërmasi Stadium in Tirana, Albania, a historic stadium built in 1956 and the home ground for the KF Tirana club, is all set to undergo its second major renovation and upgrade in a little over a decade. The football stadium, with a seating capacity of 9,500 people—often used for other public purposes—was formerly known as Dinamo Stadium, but was renamed in 1991 to honour national star player Selman Stërmasi. Calling for the replacement of more than 8,000 seats and to improve its structure and playing surface, the stadium underwent its first major renovation in 2014. A recently launched competition by Albania Investment Construction and Diagonal Projektim & Zbatim sought to invite ideas for the second coming of the stadium architecture and its adjacent areas into the new urban centre of Tirana.

Rotterdam-based OMA have won the call for the stadium's and immediate urban communes' revitalisation, from among other competition entries by Foster + Partners, FAR frohn&rojas, OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen and Zaha Hadid Architects. Led by David Gianotten, one of the seven OMA partners, the design proposes the expansion of the existing football park to catalyse closer connections between different neighbourhoods in the city.

OMA’s design for the stadium is inspired by archaic, historic sports structures from the region, along with Albania’s mountainous landscape. The new block's design is a nod to the Stadium of Amantia, bringing the ethos of the third century BCE Illyrian structure to Tirana's contemporary and fast-changing urban setting. A menhir—a tall, often monolithic tall stone structure erected in the ground— is similarly referenced in the high-rise residential tower proposed on the triangular plaza, intended to serve as both urban landmark and a "modern menhir", all the while being visible from Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit.

While the historic Amantia stadium was characterised by stacked stone slabs and a pitch carved out of the site’s mountainous slope, OMA proposes the usage of natural stones as cladding for the new structures on site. These built masses are arranged to reference the country’s peaks and valleys, creating "an urban mountain range around the pitch", as elicited in an official release.

The encompassing urban development is envisioned as an intervention that connects the upmarket neighbourhood of Blloku with the rapidly developing residential and commercial district, Komuna e Parisit, in the winning proposal that also sought to reconfigure the morphology of the site to encapsulate new buildings and open spaces, appending the Dutch architecture studio’s intent for reviving the stadium's immediate urban circle with myriad activities.

“Football is a cornerstone of urban culture and national identity across Europe and around the world and we feel it especially intensely here in Tirana. Our design is meant to accelerate the exciting changes taking place in the city, while fostering closer bonds within and between neighbourhoods and communities here,” Gianotten shares in the studio’s official press release.

Amongst the different components of OMA’s proposition are the stadium itself, a triangular plaza at its entrance and new mixed-use spaces including apartments of varying sizes, a hotel, offices, retail spaces and food and beverage zones. Further, the stadium’s seating capacity stands to be increased from 9,500 to 15,000, and an additional area in the stadium will host special seats with clear and shorter access from the stands to the pitch.

“By integrating the stadium into a new urban development, we wanted to connect two distinct areas of the city through a shared culture of football as well as spontaneous activities,” shares Kees Van Casteren, Associate, OMA.

The built mass on site—comprising the stadium building and the adjunct structures—frames the vicinal open spaces such as the triangular plaza at the entrance, a playground, multipurpose athletic courts and unprogrammed open compounds surrounded by trees. These spaces can easily be adapted to host picnics, gatherings and varied games in the verdantly lined open plots on any given day. On match days, the area can adapt to accommodate the arrival of players and spectators, along with ensuring smooth circulation across and around the stadium. Lastly, OMA has also proposed an activity map delineating the vast variety of experiences that can be curated in this space during designated events. These range from concerts, food truck zones and street theatres to skating, music festivals and pop-up markets.

Within the promptly evolving city of Tirana, where both heritage and innovation play a chief role as seen in a series of recent infrastructure projects, the proposition for opening up the Selman Stërmasi Stadium area for multifunctional public usage paves the way for burgeoning creativity, connection, collaboration and innovation in the city, while still retaining a chain link with the past.

Project Details

Name: Selman Stërmasi Stadium
Location: Tirana, Albania
Client: Albania Investment Construction, Diagonal Projektim & Zbatim
Architect: OMA
Partner: David Gianotten
Associate-in-charge: Kees Van Casteren
Design Team: Ana Otelea, Antonie van Vliet, Gerrit Knappers, Jorge Cerdo Schumann, Najla Alayyoubi
Visualisation: Stefania Trozzi, Diego Iacono
Landscape architect: LOLA Landscape Architects
Structures, sustainability, cost consultancy: Royal Haskoning DHV
Art: Petrit Halilaj
Site Area: 6 ha.
Gross Floor Area: 120,000 sq.m. (excluding basement)
Status: Competition (First Prize)