Located at the meeting point between Zagreb’s dense urban fabric and the landscape of Maksimir Park, the competition proposal for the new Maksimir Stadium reinterprets the football ground as both a major sports venue and an extension of the city’s public realm. Designed as a UEFA Category 4 stadium for approximately 35,000 spectators, it replaces the existing athletics configuration with a compact, football-specific bowl, bringing the stands closer to the pitch and strengthening the relationship between players and supporters.
Rather than placing a singular monumental object on a conventional podium, the stadium rises from a sequence of layered, concentric platforms. These platforms organize arrival, security, circulation and gathering spaces while extending outward as broad pedestrian ramps that negotiate the different levels between Maksimirska Street, the surrounding neighbourhoods and Maksimir Park. Planted edges, trees and integrated landscape elements reduce the perceived scale of the complex and transform the stadium perimeter into a series of publicly accessible terraces. Parking, service access and technical functions are incorporated beneath the elevated landscape, allowing the principal public level to remain predominantly pedestrian.
The seating bowl is organized around a continuous lower tier, with a unified northern stand providing a strong architectural setting for the club’s most passionate supporters. Hospitality, media and premium facilities are integrated into the overall composition without interrupting the clarity of the bowl. A continuous white roof covers all seating areas and gives the stadium a calm, horizontal silhouette.
The façade is conceived as a layered, partially transparent envelope of vertical elements. Its rhythm breaks down the scale of the building, reflects the surrounding greenery and allows controlled views into the internal circulation spaces. At night, integrated blue-and-white lighting transforms the stadium into a restrained urban landmark. The proposal balances monumentality with openness, creating a recognizable home for GNK Dinamo Zagreb while remaining carefully embedded within the scale, movement and landscape of Maksimir.
