New Selman Stërmasi Stadium | OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture

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.

*

Project: New Selman Stërmasi Stadium
Status: Competition (First Prize)
Client: Albania Investment Construction, Diagonal Projektim & Zbatim
Location: Tirana, Albania
Site: 6 ha.
GFA: 120.000 m2 (excluding basement)
Program: 15.000-seat Stadium 15.700 m2, residential 30.800 m2, retail 29.700 m2, offices 16.700 m2, hotel 11.900 m2, F&B 7.900 m2, conference 4.800 m2, spa 2.500 m2

Partner: David Gianotten
Associate-in-charge: Kees van Casteren
Team: Ana Otelea, Antonie van Vliet, Gerrit Knappers, Jorge Cerdo Schumann, Najla Alayoubbi
Visualization: Stefania Trozzi, Diego Iacono

COLLABORATORS

Landscape architect: LOLA Landscape Architects
Structures, sustainability, cost consultancy: Royal Haskoning DHV
Art: Petrit Halilaj