Meet the new football stadium, which will be built starting with 2014 in Craiova, Romania. The amazing football arena will replace the existing “Ion Oblemenco” Stadium and will be the fourth of the three ultra modern stadiums already opened in recent years in Romania (from Bucharest -235 million euros, Cluj’s stadium-35 million euros and Ploiesti -17 million euros). The project envisioned by Romanian multi-disciplinary design practice Proiect Bucuresti looks magnificent on paper and miniature and it can compete with the National Arena in Bucharest, but at a much lower price.
The future stadium will have a 40,000 seats capacity, will cover an area of approximately 100,000 square meters, and will be part of a larger sports complex including another small stadium, athletics track with 5,000 seats and a park linking the Polyvalent Hall with the stadium. Its construction is supposed to begin in the summer of 2014 and although not yet known, the costs of the 40,000-seat stadium are estimated around 100 million euros.
With a standard playing field measuring 105m x 68m, heated, irrigated, drained and ventilated natural grass surface, comfortable seats arranged on two levels to have the best visibility possible, and VIP skyboxes located between the levels of seating around the full perimeter of the bowl, Craiova’s new football stadium will be ultra modern and will exceed European standards. It will be designed to achieve UEFA category IV (the highest level) and will host matches within the 1-st Romanian Football League (FRF), UEFA Europa League and UEFA Champions League and for National team matches (FIFA and UEFA).
But the first thing that impresses is its remarkable architectural design, that pays tribute to the renowned Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi. The special form of the main roof lines follows the shape used to make the eyebrows of one of his famous work “Miss Pogany”, and opens to the sky, intensifying the volume of the main bowl. They will be suggestive in daylight and the enhancement of architectural lighting at night will accentuate the building when viewed from the center of the town.The stands coverage and the protection under stairs space is solved by a single element like a dome starting from a perfect ellipse base in plan. The sculptural form opened to the sky and highlighted by the structural “ribs” architecturally illuminated thanks to transparent and translucent materials will enhance the importance of the interior space.
The result is a dynamic building architecture with arched shapes which will impress the viewer. The project that architects of Proiect Bucuresti comes with, proposes an ecological approach to the environment, so the materials and technologies used to built this football arena will be sustainable and will integrate green energy sources such as photovoltaic cells, ground source heating/cooling and deep well water sources. They will choose very carefully the materials in order to protect spectators in unfavorable weather conditions and ensure in the same time the stadium is flooded with natural light necessary to maintain the stadium’s pitch.
Artificial photosynthetic systems for the same purpose. Besides the stadium, the landscape of the sports complex will be improved with new landscaping, public parks, pedestrian walkways and parking as well, transforming this highly modern area into a powerful landmark that will boost the development of Craiova. Check out the video at the end of this post!
Project details:
Location: Craiova, Romania
Architects: Proiect Bucuresti
Status: Concept design
Area: 100.000 square meters
Seats: 40.000
Execution period: 2014-2017
New “Ion Oblemenco” Football Stadium in Craiova