Drenas, Kosovo

Murat Tabanlıoğlu’s design for the 30,000-capacity Kosovo National Stadium is located in Drenas and will become the new home for the Kosovo national football team.

The stadium, built around 12 miles from the country’s capital Pristina, has been designed to bring the people of Kosovo together.

The stadium is to be built alongside two training pitches and as well as a group of buildings housing shopping and entertainment facilities.

“The new urban structure will be a bridge for people, uniting them through the joy of sports,” said Murat Tabanlıoğlu, founder of Istanbul studio Tabanlioglu Architects.

“Reflecting the contemporary and multiethnic identity of Kosovo, the stadium will bring 30,000 people together. As Kosovo recently emerged from a civil war, the interaction between people is important.”

Tabanlıoğlu designed the stadium to be constructed from a series of concrete A-frames, which will support the seating bowl and a lightweight steel frame holding up the stadium’s structural fabric façade.

The folded and flexible skin, made of textile material – to breaks down the big scale and structure of a stadium and melts it as a thin curtain between the grass and the sky.

The façade lifts up gently where the main pedestrian axis meets the structure furthermore
emphasizing the floating, lightweight quality of the design.

The neutral and modest façade can be lit and colored during times of matches and events to become a shining spectacle with endless visual transformation potential. The flexible textile surface is not only economic, light and easy to install and maintain but also has great acoustic qualities.

The façade of the stadium is shielded by a flexible textile material in harmony with the natural park adjoining this large structure, thus visually splitting the large scale and mass of the stadium, so that the structure behaves as a thin curtain between the park and the sky,” explained Tabanlıoğlu.

Using the level difference of the site these low linear masses are bermed on the eastern edge creating a natural border with the large parking zone. The private rooms of the hotel and dormitories are also lifted up to float on the public zone.

The linear green belt that wraps around the stadium act not only as an open-air urban park where numerous activities like events, concerts, markets and fairs can take place but also as a security zone between the buildings and the stadium on match days.

“The dynamic and young population creates a strong demand for sports, recreation and social events,” Tabanlıoğlu adds.

“The new national stadium is seen as an urgent need in the field of football as also the national team is getting more and more successful.”

Architects: Tabanlıoğlu Architects
Client: Kosovo National Stadium