New National Stadium, Tirana, Albania

In Tirana, the capital of Albania, a project for the construction of a new national football stadium is awaiting the first pickaxe to arrive. It is designed to meet the standards for a UEFA Elite stadium, with a 33,000 capacity and working hot showers – unlike Albania’s current national home in the same location, the 19,600 capacity Qemal Stafa Stadium.

The design of the new stadium features an elaborate concept – or at least, an elaborately explained concept: according to its designers, Fenwick-Iribarren Architects. It is supposed to represent the shape of Albiania as well as the rugged mountains around Tirana, while using the red and black colors of Albania’s national flag.

Albania’s north-shape shape is cut into a perimeter:

The field, running north-south like Albania itself, is then placed in the middle – by curious coincidence, at the very center is the town of Elbasan, the birthplace of Qemal Stafa – the World War Two hero who the current stadium there is named for. Triangle shapes connect a selection of Albania’s major towns, representing the unity the national stadium is supposed to signify.

The stadium bowl is then imposed, while the upper and lower points are “folded down” to fit into the stadium’s site’s tight constrictions.

And voila…..

The black coloring represents the black on Albania’s national flag, while the red of the flag is represented inside the stadium.

Meanwhile, the envelope shape of the stadium’s exterior structure is supposed to bring to mind the rugged form of Tirana’s mountainous landscape:

The stadium’s location itself, on the site of the Qemal Stafa Stadium – to be demolished following the Euro 2012 qualifiers – places the new stadium at the heart of Tirana’s urban agglomeration of 600,000 people, running by the river Ishëm.

The stadium is projected to cost €60 million ($82 million), with funding from the Football Association of Albania, the national Albanian government, and with assistance from UEFA. The latter will surely be delighted with the prospect of sending visiting teams to an elite stadium, though the thought of Ronaldo taking a cold shower at Qemal Stafa Stadium has a certain, soon to be lost, charm.

That said, the architects do intend to preserve Qemal Stafa Stadium’s main entrance, moving it to the new stadium’s main access point on the west plaza:

This, then, is Albania’s future national stadium, due to begin construction by the end of 2011: