Szegedi Stadion – design description

New stadium in Szeged has been planned in the west of the city, on what was previously a green area between the industrial and residential districts. It's part of what was named Szegedi Ifjúsági Centrum (Szeged Youth Complex). Aside from the main sports venue there will be an indoor arena, three training fields, open-air courts and an amphitheatre.

The stadium itself will only occupy a footprint of 10,000 m² due to its practical, yet unusual shape. Instead of common rectangle, it's octagonal. There are no corner sections, however the bowl is enclosed with airy membrane walls, adding to the aesthetics.

With over 8,000 seats the stadium is expected to meet all UEFA criteria for Category 4 stadia. The roof's inner edge is placed at almost 25 meters, which means no additional floodlight masts were needed, not distrupting the general shape.

Interestingly, construction has been scheduled for just one year. Following groundbreaking in April of 2018, majority of the roof's primary structure (weighing almost 1,000 tons) was already in place by September. Fantastic pace of the project is owed largely to its structure, almost entirely pregabricated.