The story of the stadium project for the football club BATE from the Belarusian Borisov began in early 2010. Then the OFIS representatives contacted me and offered to come to them to work on this project. Without thinking twice, I agreed, especially since I am fond of football and an avid fan myself. As a representative of OFIS, I used the time taken up by the issues of obtaining a visa to go to Borisov and get acquainted with the participants in the process: the director and president of the club, as well as local architects from Borisovproekt who were “appointed” to this project from above. I was shown a proposed construction site - a military training ground on the outskirts of Borisov for testing armored vehicles, which they planned to "alienate" from the military.
After my return to Moscow, the “great embassy” from Belarus went to Ljubljana, consisting of officials and representatives of the FC administration, headed by the president of the club and, concurrently, the owner of the Borisov plant BATE (“patron” of the team) Anatoly Kapsky. The delegations showed some of the OFIS buildings, including a guided tour of
stadium Ludski Vrt in the Slovenian city of Maribor.
This stadium, once reconstructed by OFIS Arhitekti (from the old stadium there was only one stand, recognized as a heritage site and therefore preserved), played a decisive role in the interest of Belarusians in OFIS Arhitekti. The owner of the Borisov FC once liked this stadium so much - small, cozy, bright and, at the same time, with excellent acoustics - that when finally there was an opportunity to think about a new stadium for BATE, Maribor was taken as a model. This, in my opinion, is an excellent example of how, thanks to a vivid impression of interesting, memorable architecture, in a country that, due to certain circumstances, is far from the centers of modern architecture and previously unnoticed in the desire to import experience "from outside", the implementation of an original modern project began …
In Ljubljana, active work began with the involvement of specialists from UEFA (according to the customer's brief, the Belarusian stadium was supposed to be of the 4th category according to the UEFA classification, so that the team could host matches up to the “quarterfinals” of European cups). The sketch was ready in a month and a half, and this is taking into account the fact that during this short period, 4 options for the location of the stadium changed. In this period, the production of a model of the future building also fit.
The sketch together with the model was delivered to Borisov and demonstrated to the governor of the Minsk region Boris Batura. The project was adopted without changes: the stadium with a capacity of approx. 13,100 seats are reserved exclusively for football matches. Also, the project provides, in addition to the main program, about 3000 m2 of commercial space (they constitute the 2nd stage of construction). The final site for construction was finally found, and a successful one: outside the city, on a clearing spontaneously formed as a result of poaching deforestation, which then served as an unauthorized dump, in the immediate vicinity of the highway to Minsk and the railway station. The stadium will be located 60 km from the Minsk airport, that is, in fact, "on the flag" for transport accessibility according to UEFA requirements.
After submitting the sketch, we were “signed” to the design stage. By this time, a joint Lithuanian-Belarusian bureau was assigned to us as partners from the Belarusian side to perform the functions of a general designer. As a result, in the fall of 2010, a project was completed, ready to be submitted for state examination. In October, Rock Oman and I (founder of the OFIS bureau - editor's note) and I arrived in Borisov to participate in the ceremony of laying the capsule at the site of the future construction. Since the project is supervised from the very top, Alexander Lukashenko was supposed to be present at the ceremony.
A funny episode was connected with this event: a temporary oilcloth tent with stands and a presentation model of the stadium, made especially for this occasion in Lithuania, was erected on the site for the president's arrival. Appearing in this tent a few hours before Lukashenka's arrival, we were horrified to find water stains and streaks on the model: no one thought to cover the model with cellophane for the night, and the condensate did its job … I had to quickly peel off the spoiled football lawn from the model and urgently go to print a new one - already on the banner fabric, and dry the rest of the affected areas with a hair dryer, while gluing the "fallen trees" in parallel. As a result, although the hair dryer burned out, unable to withstand the load, by the very arrival of "himself" everything was corrected.
Since November 2010, the builders have entered the site. The completion of the construction of the stadium was announced for the summer of 2012, by the 910th anniversary of the founding of Borisov, however, some features of the Belarusian construction industry were amended in the implementation process. Unfortunately, from the moment the documentation was handed over, we have received only scant information on how the work is progressing on site, not to mention the field supervision, from which we were simply “pushed aside”. As far as it became known, construction was first stopped as a result of the crisis that arose after the presidential elections, and then such a phenomenon of the Belarusian reality as "dozhinki" made its contribution: when all the resources of the construction industry are transferred to one specific regional center, every year a new one, in As a result, infrastructure facilities, new sports complexes and ice rinks are being quickly built there …
Now, again, according to rumors, work on the construction of the stadium has intensified, but now completely different implementation dates are called … In general, we can only wait and hope for the will of the president of the Kapsky club, who has always supported our project in its original form. What will happen next with construction depends on him. Hold on, Anatoly Anatolyevich!
