VTB Arena Park comprises the redevelopment of the Dynamo Moscow stadium and its surrounding park. Erick van Egeraat proposed a contemporary multifunctional urban regenerator, that will play a key role in transforming its wider surroundings. Erick van Egeraat’s 300,000 m² multifunctional culture, health and sports centre will be developed on a 116,000 m² site and will comprise a 45,000 seat Stadium Arena for Dynamo Moscow, a 10,000-seat Arena Hall, a Retail and Entertainment complex, restaurants, parking and other facilities.

Erick van Egeraat and his Russian partner Mikhail Posokhin (Mosproekt-2) selected a team of Russian and internationally acclaimed consultants for this competition, including Bollinger + Grohmann structural engineers, Amsterdam ArenA Advisory, Artec Acoustic consultants and Illuminator lighting consultants. Erick van Egeraat’s design was chosen out of five international competitors, including NPS Tchoban Voss with gmp von Gerkan Marg und Partner, STD development with Interstudio, ABD with Perkins Eastman International, and Mosproekt 4 with Populous.

The final jury sitting was held on Monday 28 June 2010. The jury, consisting of international specialists and chaired by Yuri Luzhkov, Mayor of Moscow, Andrei Kostin, VTB Chairman and Alexander Avdeev, Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, was unanimous in selecting Erick van Egeraat’s design. The jury especially praised the design for its ‘all-under-one-roof’ concept, providing a multifunctional mix of sports and cultural facilities all concentrated in and underneath the current stadium perimeter.

Other key characteristics of the winning proposal are:
- historic preservation: the two stadiums will be situated within the ring of the old stadium, preserving the perimeter façade of the existing arena and integrating it functionally and esthetically into the new proposal
- self sustaining business model: to be financially self sustaining VTB Arena Park will also host cultural and retail facilities. The mix of sports, culture and retail facilities creates profitable and vibrant activities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
- park preservation and enlargement: VTB Arena allows the existing park to be completely preserved as a public, green area. Parking facilities will be included underground, and horeca and sports training facilities will be included above ground, with the park continuing over the roof of these functions.
- full FIFA compliance soccer stadium: the complex is designed in full compliance with the FIFA regulations, allowing the stadium to play a significant role in Russia’s ambitions to host the 2018 FIFA world cup.
- transferium: the combination of retail, parking and metro next to the Leningradskiy Prospekt make the project an excellent transportation hub. This allows for all-year-round commercial exploitation of the parking facilities, and would help offloading the city’s congested roads.

After a redevelopment according to this design proposal, VTB Arena Park will be better equipped than ever to be a welcoming destination to anyone living, working or visiting the city of Moscow.

“After the announcement of our winning design the jury presented their ambition for the site, acknowledging that this was the only design that achieved all objectives whilst respecting the park and the monumental value,” says Erick van Egeraat. “This challenging site embodies a great tradition which we must honour. It also holds all potential conflicts a city can offer. To resolve this, we proposed a design that embraces the history and context of the Dynamo stadium and the Petrovski Park and creates a contemporary icon of the 21st century of which the people of Moscow can be proud. A project that will provide diversity to the area and reinforce its identity.”

Source: Erick van Egeraat