The Grand Ballroom – Albania’s 6,000-Seat Stadium 

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12 November 2025

The new Asllan Rusi sports palace in Albania is set to become a new landmark for the city of Tirana.

Architect MVRDV has won the competition to design what’s being dubbed “The Grand Ballroom” – a bold, spherical structure that combines a 6,000-seat basketball and volleyball arena, apartments, a hotel and retail offerings into one monumental space.

Picture: a CGI showing the arena being used for a basketball match. The upper floors of the hotel can be seen through the oculus. Image Credit: © MVRDV

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The proposed sphere shape is less about creating an iconic addition to Tirana’s skyline and more about an innovative use of space. The design stacks apartments and the hotel directly above the sports arena, accommodating a significant amount of amenities on a relatively small site. 

The spherical shape was also chosen to avoid a rear façade that neglects the surrounding neighbourhood. The base tapers inwards, creating more space for the public realm. The upper tapering of the sphere creates terraces for the residential apartments.

The sphere also provides hotel guests with a unique view. The hotel occupies the two floors above the arena itself, allowing guests to watch matches from the windows of rooms on the lower levels and from the amenity spaces on the upper level. A huge oculus in the arena ceiling has thick, soundproof glass.

Above the arena, apartments are contained within the sphere’s double-shell structure. Some are outward-facing, whilst others feature a dual aspect with views of the interior dome, courtyard garden, and a glimpse into the arena through the oculus. The external walls of the apartments are set back within the sphere’s shell and shaded from the sun by the floor above.

MVRDV hopes the site becomes a new landmark in Tirana and a singular destination for the people of the city to gather. 

“The Grand Ballroom will become a beacon, aiming to inspire and encourage people to play and to watch sport. A place to play, meet, and celebrate! How can we express that?” said MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. “

The spherical shape is a reference to the round ball used by so many sports. Yet it also recalls enlightenment temples, from Étienne-Louis Boullée’s Cenotaph for Newton to Buckminster Fuller’s tribute to technological optimism, the geodesic dome. A great sphere in the heart of Tirana can similarly become a temple to sport and community. By connecting the different functions, it invites everyone in the building to be part of the action. By providing public spaces complete with sports facilities, it becomes a part of its neighbourhood. By serving as a landmark, it draws people from all over the city and beyond to gather together and celebrate.”

Picture: a CGI showing an aerial view of the sphere in the Tirana skyline. Image Credit: © MVRDV

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 12 November 2025

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