Zagrebački greben — Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb

The architectural identity of the stadium is drawn from the silhouette of Medvednica — the mountain that forms Zagreb's natural backdrop — and from the history of the city itself, which grew on the two hills of Kaptol and Gradec.

A rhythm of inclined structural elements creates a changing perimeter and gives the stadium a recognisable profile. The image is meant as an architectural expression of structure, movement and the stadium's connection to the city rather than as decoration.

The main entrance develops the idea with one large urban gesture: a west plaza-park that becomes the transition between the stadium, the surrounding public spaces and the landscape.

Historic Zagreb began as two rival settlements on neighbouring hills, Kaptol and Gradec, with a stream between them. The stone bridge that joined them saw so many fights that it became known as Krvavi most, the Bloody Bridge. Then the city grew, the settlements merged, the stream disappeared under the streets, and the bridge turned from a place of conflict into a piece of shared history.

We wanted to carry that image into the new complex — not literally, not as a quotation. The stadium is designed as a modern bridge: a place that joins the districts, the park, sport, the fans and the city itself. That is the central idea of the project.

The new home of GNK Dinamo Zagreb holds 35,355 spectators. Every seat is under the roof, and the compact geometry of the bowl keeps the crowd as close to the pitch as the C-value sightline rules of FIFA, UEFA and EN 13200 allow.

Particular attention went to the identity of the fan sectors, sightlines, visitor flows, hospitality areas, accessibility, security and the operational requirements of a UEFA Category 4 stadium. The pitch is turned to a north–south axis, which both satisfies FIFA insolation requirements and opens new public space on all four sides. The rotation was decided six weeks into a three-month competition and meant reworking a large part of what had already been drawn — for better light on the turf and a new main axis tied to Maksimir Park.

The stadium is conceived as a major football arena and, at the same time, as a piece of the city that keeps working outside match days: a club museum, retail, offices and a wellness complex live in the stands.

A stadium is only the top of a football system: behind it stand an academy, training pitches, recovery and medical facilities. So the youth stadium required by the brief is not a separate building — it is integrated with the main arena, with its infrastructure placed in the east stand. Around it sit a football academy, the club museum, a children's centre, fitness and training halls, a hotel for athletes, conference rooms and restaurants. The cafés are deliberately set outside the main volume, so people come here not only on match day.

Media is part of both the architecture and the business model: a large screen behind the home fans' stand and further screens at the entrances serve matches, concerts, festivals, city events and advertising — an extra revenue stream for the club.

Logistics were designed before the facades. Routes for players, media, VIP guests, spectators, staff and vehicles were analysed separately: players, media and VIP each get their own access, while the main crowds arrive from the south and west, where a plaza-park opens up. Movement options were tested in specialised simulation software and the best-performing one was chosen. About 350 wheelchair places, including in the west and south stands, come with their own evacuation routes.

The concept reaches well beyond the stadium. On the SRC Svetice site the sports facilities, landscape and public spaces are organised as one continuous urban system tied to the stadium and to Maksimir Park: a World Athletics Category II athletics stadium with a 2,000-seat covered stand, and an Indoor Sports Hub with a 4,592-seat handball hall and a 3,000-seat multifunctional hall on a shared semi-underground base. The existing swimming pool is kept and woven into the ensemble.

At Borongaj the project keeps and integrates the existing tram loop, stop and buildings while turning the area into the southern transport gateway of the whole complex. Instead of several deep underground levels, a multi-storey car park for about 1,500 cars is proposed — a response to the high groundwater table that also gives an efficient traffic scheme and an unbroken pedestrian link between tram, rail and stadium. Its roof becomes a landscaped boulevard.

At key crossings vehicle traffic is taken below grade so that the main pedestrian routes stay continuous and barrier-free. The car park is divided into independently controlled sectors, which allows the flows of rival supporters to be separated safely and the site to adapt to different event scenarios.

Geology set the first rule. Clays and groundwater at roughly 3.5–7 m, with seasonal swings, make every deep basement a matter of waterproofing, dewatering, extra structure and operating risk. So the stadium is raised above existing grade, a continuous public level wraps around it, and only the functions that genuinely benefit from being underground stay there, as semi-buried volumes. That lowers construction risk, simplifies operation and separates people from vehicles naturally.

The building is split into two systems: a heavy, permanent base — reinforced-concrete bowl, floor slabs, stiffness cores and vertical circulation on pile foundations — and a long-span roof that is as light as possible. A cable-net with a membrane skin was chosen after comparing it with steel trusses, which came out enormously heavy in steel, bulky and sensitive to wind and seismic loads. The bowl is divided into seismic compartments with expansion joints, the precast stands are modular for fabrication and assembly, and materials from the old stadium are planned for reuse and recycling.

Hybrid stitched turf with under-soil heating; floodlighting, pitch lighting and airflow inside the bowl worked out together with the roof; district heating backed by PV and battery storage; 98% of viable greenery preserved; rainwater harvested for all irrigation.

The entry was produced in one integrated architectural and engineering process — urban design, stadium design, parametric modelling and BIM coordination — with a business case attached: €204 M construction budget, €22.7 M projected annual revenue, 365 days of use and an indicative payback under 12 years. Concept, engineering logic and economics designed together, which is how TVORZI approaches every complex object.