Arena CSKA – design description

New stadium for CSKA Moskva was designed in 2006 to replace the old one in north-western Moscow. This was just after CSKA won their first European trophy, the UEFA Cup. To celebrate the success, a skyscraper was designed in the south-western corner of the stadium, shaped after the UEFA Cup. After several alterations its form stopped at 142 meters in height (38 floors, some 20,000 square meters).

This wasn’t the only interesting idea. Two other corners were equipped with office buildings (south-east and north-west), except these are hidden within the stadium’s outer shape (7,500 sqm each). Fourth corner (north-east) will be home to a 48-room hotel. All of the stadium will be covered with a smoothly bent roof.

The seating bowl, as a result, was divided into four individual stands, each with two tiers. The lower tier accommodates 12,500 people throughout the stadium, upper one 14,500. Between the tiers there’s room for 106 skyboxes (12-18 people), which allow the building to reach overall capacity of 30,000. In terms of floor space, the sports part is significantly lower than the office part (78,000 sqm out of 171 700 sqm).

Also included in the building are parking spaces, total of 1,400 in both the underground part of the stadium and a separate multi-floor parking building. On weekdays the parking will serve up to 3,300 employees of the commercial part, while on matchdays it’s for CSKA fans. Most of them should, however, use the subway, because there are two stations within walking distance.

Construction began in late 2007 and was initially expected to end in 2009/2010. This soon proved unrealistic as legal reasons caused works to stop on several occasions. Eventually opening is planned in 2016.