Project Name: The Grand Ballroom

Location: Tirana, Albania

Design Team: MVRDV

Total Floor Area: 90,200 m²

Completion: 2025 –

Feature: Dutch architecture studio MVRDV has won the competition to design the new Asllan Rusi sports palace in Tirana, Albania. Comprising a 6,000-seat arena for basketball and volleyball with residential apartments, a hotel, and ground-level retail, the 90,200-square-metre complex takes the form of a sphere over 100 metres in diameter. Named The Grand Ballroom, the proposal will become a new addition to the city's collection of distinctive architectural projects, and a singular destination for the people of the city to gather together.

The spherical form accomplishes far more than creating an iconic structure alongside the road connecting the airport to the city centre. By stacking the hotel and residential functions on top of the arena, the design accommodates a significant amount of programme on a relatively small site. The rounded building avoids creating any rear façades that neglect the surrounding neighbourhood. By tapering inwards towards the building's base, it creates more space for public plazas and outdoor sports facilities that can be used by local children. And by tapering inward at the top, it creates terraces for the building's residents, blending sport and community into a cohesive environment.

The building's functions are arranged in layers. Where the sphere meets the ground, it imprints the earth, creating a lower-ground floor with steps and tribunes leading downwards to a ring of retail spaces, cafés, and amenities that supports the arena's events. Above this is the arena itself, accessed by short bridges at ground level, with the main venue flanked by two additional training courts hidden beneath the stands. The hotel occupies two floors above this, offering guests the unique experience of watching matches from the windows of rooms on the lower level, and from the amenity spaces on the upper level, which cantilever over the stands to create an oculus in the arena ceiling.

The oculus could be closed with a thick layer of glass to form a soundproof barrier while maintaining a visual connection between the upper and lower volumes. Above this level, apartments are contained within the sphere's double-shell structure, forming a colossal semi-outdoor domed space on the interior, almost a mirror of the bowl-shaped arena. This space becomes a courtyard garden for residents, with mature trees and furniture for relaxing. In a number of places, the dome of apartments gives way to three- and four-storey rectangular holes punched through the building's shell, allowing natural ventilation and creating additional communal green spaces for residences, each with its own theme.

The apartments in the sphere's shell comprise a mixture of outward-facing units and a portion of dual aspect units, which offer spectacular views not only of the city but also of the interior dome, courtyard garden, and a glimpse into the arena through the oculus. As the sphere tapers in at the top, large terraces are created for residents. The external walls of the apartments are set back within the sphere's shell, ensuring that the apartment interiors are shaded from the sun by the floor above, while accentuating the size of these terraces. The very top of the dome mostly hosts duplex penthouses, each with access to a private rooftop terrace, while one quarter of this upper ring hosts a double-height hotel skybar, with views over the city. A second oculus, that can be closed with glass and opened for ventilation, completes the sphere.

"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?" comments 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 Etienne-Louis Boullee'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. It thus continues the growing Tirana Collection of new buildings."

Design Team: MVRDV was founded in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, and Nathalie de Vries, and has evolved into one of the world's most innovative architecture practices, now comprising a dynamic team of over 300 professionals led by the three founding partners alongside Frans de Witte, Fokke Moerel, Wenchian Shi, Jan Knikker, and Bertrand Schippan. With offices in Rotterdam, Shanghai, Paris, Berlin, and New York, the firm maintains a global presence that addresses contemporary architectural and urban challenges across all continents.

MVRDV's distinctive approach centers on a highly collaborative, research-based design methodology that engages clients, stakeholders, and interdisciplinary experts from the earliest stages of the creative process. This method generates exemplary projects that advance urban and landscape development toward sustainable futures. The firm's integrated Climate Team ensures environmental resilience across all projects, while MVRDV NEXT implements computational workflows and emerging technologies to optimize design efficiency and adaptability.

The practice has gained international recognition for transformative projects that blend innovation with social responsibility. Notable works include the Markthal in Rotterdam, combining housing with a spectacular food market; the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, the world's first fully accessible art storage facility; and the Pyramid of Tirana, converting Albania's former dictatorial monument into a cultural hub providing free education. The firm's portfolio spans diverse typologies, from mixed-use towers like Valley in Amsterdam to urban interventions such as Seoul's Seoullo 7017 Skygarden, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to creating joyful, unexpected, and socially engaged architecture that reimagines urban possibilities.