New Skenderbeu Stadium Korça, Albania
The urban planning project consists of the redevelopment of the existing Skenderbeu football stadium and the adjacent sports facilities, with the aim of creating a mixed-use, urban area for Korça. Introducing new buildings, alleys, and plazas supporting cultural living and everyday life, the urban transformation will create a familiar cultural experience inspired by Korça’s rich heritage. The restoration of the future New Skenderbeu Stadium will increase its capacity to 10,000 seats once completed.
Connecting cultural heritage, urban vibe, and arena experience
Traditionally, because of its size and use, a stadium is situated on its own, away from the centre. Instead, CEBRA’s design extends the Parku Rinia public park and the built environment around the stadium to connect vibrant city life to the arena complex.
To respect the history of the entire plot, the fields and pitches stay where they are. CEBRA plans to extend the park across the Bulevardi Rilindasit and through the plot to form a green and shaded space at the very centre of the site. In the proposed master plan, the building mass is divided into city blocks as the proposal extends adjacent streets from the surrounding neighbourhoods into the area. Each block will consist of individual buildings of varying sizes and functions. Thus, new streets and alleys are formed that will run through the neighbourhood and lead directly to the arena.
New facilities create an active park and urban community
Besides the new Skenderbeu Stadium, the 158,000 m2 site holds an existing athletic games training area, football pitches and smaller courts, a new Olympic pool, indoor court facilities, and accommodation. Moreover, a new plaza welcomes arena guests at an arrival square near the arena entrance, where a bust of the national hero Skenderbeu stands.
The proposal adds a new restaurant at the centre of the park, as well as a pink pavilion coffee stand for the local football team supporters, to the existing beacons of the Kids Museum, the triangular seating bank and the Tamara Nikolla Sports Palace. To create a lively urban hub suitable for both cultural events and daily living for district residents, shops, family housing, day-care centres, sports museums, pubs and restaurants, and supermarkets can help support vibrant city life for families, supporters, tourists, and young adults.
Catches Korça’s DNA
To fit the context of Korça and only subtly add contemporary traits, the Danish studio has carefully studied the old part of town in particular and noted its most significant characteristics. Based on this morphological analysis of the Korça typologies, the neighbourhood will consist mainly of two- to four-storey buildings and an environment rich in variation, unique shapes, and irregular urban spaces. The city blocks and the streets between them will be irregular, making the urban spaces distinct. Inspired by Korça’s built environment, most buildings will be rendered or stone-based and feature red, hip roofs in various forms.
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