Batumi Stadium – design description

This representative football stadium in Georgia’s most famous holiday destination will be built along newly created avenue in western part of the city. It would be just a short walk away from the beach, but the selected location has its compromises. Fitting a 20,000-capacity stadium without rotating it from the north-south axis (preferred for sunlight access) proved almost impossible, forcing slight changes in seating layout (lower corners).

Altogether, with parking sites for roughly 1,000 cars, the stadium will sit on a plot of 87,000 square meters. Its form was created by Bahadir Kul, renowned Turkish office responsible for numerous stadium in the region, including the 40,000-seaters in Konya or Kayseri.

The concept is inspired by Georgia’s passion for dance. It utilizes the motion of whirl common in dances of the Caucasus. The building’s outer skin captures motion in a well-delivered way, producing a dynamic impression.

Neutral by day, the cladding will be dynamically illuminated at night to represent colours of Georgia, Adjara region or local football team Dinamo (of course other combinations will also be possible).

The double-tiered stands have a traditional layout and split the audience almost perfectly between the lower and upper decks, 10,040 and 9,995 seats respectively.

In 2016 detailed design were to be created. Despite plans to break ground by the end of that year, actual tender ended in December, 2017. This meant groundbreaking in January of 2018 and 34 months for construction.