We present a lecture by sociologist and professor Fabio Salomoni, one of the authors of the exhibition Stadi. Architettura e mito at Rome’s MAXXI, discussing his long-standing research on the stadium as a place where architecture, identity, emotion, politics, and everyday urban life intersect. The lecture directly engages with the current topic of the Architectural Competition for Maksimir Stadium and the Svetice Sports and Recreation Centre, with particular emphasis on the social dimensions of the stadium.
As he himself states: The stadium is not merely a material structure endowed with certain architectural and engineering qualities, but also a “total social space”, a space deeply intertwined with economic, political, urban, and social dynamics. At the same time, it is a space imbued with meaning, and therefore a Place. To observe the stadium thus means to examine the material and symbolic relationships it establishes with its urban context, to analyze the characteristics of the people who visit it, their emotions and practices, to observe the different ways in which the stadium becomes a political and memorial space, as well as the various, sometimes conflicting, meanings attributed to it.
- 26.5.2026 16:14:00