
Located to the north-east of the town of Krasnodar in southern Russia, the stadium―which has been designed to UEFA guidelines―is raised on a plinth and nestles comfortably into the open park landscape also designed by gmp. With its classical division of the elevation into three parts, the football stadium makes clear reference to the generic style of the original amphitheater of ancient times, including fluted pilasters of bright, almost white, Roman travertine arranged in a regular pattern. By contrast, the roof over the grandstands has been designed as a lightweight ring cable structure. Its two-layer covering membrane consists of PTFE-coated glass-fiber mesh, creating a three-dimensional roof shape that integrates technical services such as floodlighting, and heating for the spectator stands. The area behind the top tier is fully equipped with LED modules all around. This 360-degree screen, the world’s first, can be used for various formats of media projections. Its wave-like curved contour results from the geometry of the stadium, the basic oval shape of which intersects with the grandstands facing the rectangular pitch.