The Dutch architectural powerhouse MVRDV, renowned for its radical approach to density and typology, has once again shattered convention with its winning design for the new Asllan Rusi Sports Palace in Tirana, Albania. Dubbed “The Grand Ballroom,” the project is a colossal sphere, over 100 metres in diameter, that redefines the concept of a sports complex by fusing a 6,000-seat basketball and volleyball arena with an entire vertical city: a hotel, luxury residences, and retail spaces. This monumental sphere is much more than a landmark; it is a meticulously layered stack of public and private life, designed to be a civic beacon that references the very object of sport—the round ball—while simultaneously nodding to the grand, idealistic geometries of historical architecture, from the Enlightenment temples of Étienne-Louis Boullée to the technological optimism of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes. Set along the vital road connecting the airport to the city centre, the structure is a powerful declaration of Tirana’s architectural ambition and its ongoing urban transformation.
The Geometry of Integration: Why a Sphere?
MVRDV’s choice of the spherical form for The Grand Ballroom is not merely a gesture of spectacle but a deeply functional strategic decision aimed at addressing the complex demands of the urban site and the mixed-use program. According to Founding Partner Winy Maas, the sphere is, at its most direct, a physical reference to the sports ball, embodying the spirit of play and competition that the arena is intended to celebrate. More profoundly, the 360-degree geometry resolves several critical urban planning issues simultaneously.
Firstly, its perfectly rounded form eliminates the architectural hierarchy of “front” and “back.” Traditional rectangular buildings invariably neglect one side, relegating it to a service entrance or an unadorned façade. The sphere ensures that the building maintains a uniform and engaging dialogue with the surrounding neighbourhood from every angle, acting as a true landmark visible from all directions along the airport road.
Secondly, the spherical geometry is essential for the structure’s efficiency on a compact site. By stacking the diverse programs—the arena, the hotel, and the residential units—vertically within one continuous volume, MVRDV condenses a massive 90,200-square-metre floor area onto a relatively small urban footprint. This vertical density is a hallmark of MVRDV’s design philosophy, maximizing the program while minimizing ground coverage. The design ensures that the high-capacity functions of a sports arena coexist harmoniously with the intimate scale of private housing and hospitality, all within a singular, monolithic object of architectural optimism.
A Vertical Community: Stacking Public and Private Life
The internal organisation of The Grand Ballroom is a masterpiece of mixed-use choreography, arranging the building’s functions in a layered composition that transitions smoothly from fully public activities at the base to completely private retreats at the summit. This programmatic stacking ensures that the energy of the sports arena percolates through the structure, while the residential areas retain necessary peace and privacy.
At the lowest level, where the sphere meets the ground, the mass tapers inward, carving out space for generous public plazas and outdoor sports facilities, including courts accessible to local children. The building appears to press into the earth, forming a sunken lower-ground ring. Steps and terraced seating lead down to this vibrant perimeter, which is lined with retail, cafes, and amenities, creating a lively hub that supports both the arena’s events and the daily life of the surrounding district.
The main 6,000-seat arena for basketball and volleyball anchors the central portion of the sphere, accessed via short pedestrian bridges from the street level. Discretely integrated beneath the sweeping stands are two additional training courts, maximizing the usability of the structure’s volume. Above this, the transition to the commercial and residential layers begins.
The Ocular Connection: Hotel, Housing, and the View to the Court
The integration of the hotel and residences directly above the arena is arguably the most dynamic feature of The Grand Ballroom, forging a unique, immersive connection between spectatorship and daily life. Two floors are dedicated to the hotel, situated immediately above the stands. On the lower of these floors, selected guest rooms are granted the unique feature of being able to view matches directly from their windows, providing an unprecedented level of immersion into the sporting events below.
On the hotel’s upper amenity level, this connection culminates in a dramatic architectural element: a large oculus that pierces the arena’s ceiling. This ring of shared spaces cantilevers over the stands, framing the court below. While the oculus can be sealed with a thick layer of glass for soundproofing, it maintains a vital visual link, allowing hotel guests in lounges and amenity spaces to share in the collective energy of the match, transforming the ceiling into a shared point of focus between the various strata of the building.
Above the hotel, the residential units are ingeniously embedded within the sphere’s double-shell structure. This arrangement creates a colossal, semi-outdoor domed space on the building’s interior—a vast, inverted bowl that mirrors the shape of the arena bowl below. This interior dome is transformed into a spectacular communal courtyard garden for residents, complete with mature trees, shaded seating, and landscaped areas, offering a serene, suspended green space that acts as a protected world high above the city’s bustle.
A Sky-High Landscape: Light, Air, and Terraces
The residential section of The Grand Ballroom is designed not just for density but for quality of life, prioritizing access to light, ventilation, and outdoor space. The spherical shell is deliberately punctuated by large, rectangular voids—some spanning three or four storeys high—that are punched through the apartment dome. These openings serve dual purposes: they ensure natural ventilation for the semi-outdoor courtyard garden and carve out additional, smaller communal green spaces, each potentially themed differently, enriching the internal ecosystem of the residential layers.
The apartments themselves are set back within the sphere’s double-shell, ensuring they are naturally shaded from direct sun exposure by the floor slab above, a smart passive design strategy. This setback simultaneously creates generous, private terraces for the residents. The dwelling mix includes both outward-facing units, offering panoramic views of Tirana’s rapidly evolving skyline, and dual-aspect units, which provide views of both the city and the tranquil, inner courtyard garden. Some lucky dual-aspect residents also get glimpses of the arena through the central oculus, perpetually connecting them, however subtly, to the life of the building’s sporting core.
The structure culminates in the uppermost ring of the dome, which hosts luxury duplex penthouses. These premium residences enjoy private rooftop terraces formed by the final inward curve of the sphere, offering sweeping, unobstructed views of the Albanian capital. Occupying one quarter of this apex ring is a dramatic double-height skybar for the hotel, ensuring that the spectacular views are a shared amenity. Capping the entire sphere is a second, closable glass oculus, designed to allow daylight and ventilation into the massive interior space, symbolically opening MVRDV’s temple of community to the sky.
The Beacon of Tirana: A Monument of Optimism
The Grand Ballroom arrives as a powerful addition to the ongoing architectural boom in Tirana, a city that has embraced bold, statement architecture as part of its strategy for urban and national identity. The project replaces the existing Asllan Rusi sports palace, signifying the capital’s move toward integrated, multi-functional civic landmarks.
Winy Maas articulates the project’s lofty ambition, positioning the sphere as more than just a venue for basketball and volleyball. He envisions it as a “beacon,” a structure that inspires celebration, gathering, and physical activity. By consciously referencing monumental architectural archetypes—from the unbuilt Enlightenment-era geometries of Boullée to the geodesic domes of technological utopianism—Maas suggests that The Grand Ballroom is intended to be a contemporary temple: a civic monument dedicated not to the gods, but to the collective spirit of sport and community engagement.
The building’s continuous, metallic-paneled surface will reflect the Albanian light, ensuring it registers prominently in the city’s visual field, while its porous, layered interior encourages public interaction and urban belonging. MVRDV’s Grand Ballroom, therefore, represents a complete rethinking of the stadium typology, transforming it from a singular event space into a holistic vertical village where citizens live, stay, shop, and play, all within the embrace of one monumental, perfectly rounded form.
