Tirana is about to get a building that looks equal parts sports venue, sculpture, and visiting spacecraft.
Dutch studio MVRDV has revealed plans for The Grand Ballroom, a perfectly round, glowing arena that rises more than 100 meters over the city.
It replaces the old Asllan Rusi Sports Palace with something far more surreal, like a luminous orb quietly parked in the middle of town.
The structure, looks a fair bit like the Death Star, as a major destination.
The idea is simple in shape and wildly complex inside. The bottom level opens to the public with shops and gathering spaces.
Above that sits a full sized arena wrapped in steep seating, with hotel rooms arranged above the action so you can literally watch a basketball game from your pillow.
Up another layer, apartments form a ring around a circular courtyard that looks down onto the arena floor.
At the very top, a crown of penthouses peers out over Tirana, each tucked into the curve of the sphere with private terraces and views of the city.
During the day the building reads like a crisp geometric object, almost too perfect to be real. At night it becomes a glowing lantern, lit from within by the energy of the arena and the movement of the residents who live above it.
The building never fully sleeps. Matches take place in the hollow center while people eat, sleep, shop, and wander through the spaces wrapped around it.
The project fits neatly into Tirana’s rapid transformation, part of a larger plan to bring more expressive, ambitious architecture into the city.
MVRDV has already left its mark with the Pyramid of Tirana. The Grand Ballroom takes that spirit and sends it into orbit. It is bold, bright, and impossible to ignore.
There is something delightfully literal about shaping the whole building like a sports ball. At a distance, it reads as a giant orb resting in the skyline.
Up close, the carved openings and layered spaces reveal a vertical neighborhood packed into a single curved shell. It feels like a digital rendering made real, a miniature world contained inside a sphere.
MVRDV often plays with unusual geometry, from mirrored bowls to pixelated towers. This new arena fits right into that lineage. It dares the city to think bigger and imagine a future where buildings can be both serious and playful at the same time.
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