The FIFA headquarters building is clad in GKD wire mesh

Situated near the world-famous Zurich Zoo in the classy suburb of Hottingen, the shimmering monolith of the FIFA headquarters crouches low in a clearing surrounded by woodland. That this is a multi-storey building and representative centre of the world’s biggest sports association, cleverly planned down to the last detail, only becomes apparent once inside the building. The reduction to a few unpretentious, yet at the same time, elegant materials is the characteristic stylistic device used in the design.

In this way, the renowned Zurich architect Tilla Theus has achieved a thoroughly athletic building whose architecture radiates outstanding strength and inner composure. Slanted on all sides, without a single right angle, with perspective lines that narrow or widen in every dimension, the building unites fascinating dynamics with a lightness that seems to defy gravity. “Dancing walls” is how the architect describes her concept, a concept whose implementation called for top performances from all those involved in the construction work.

Mesh façade tensioned on slant
The building gets its futuristic aura from the congenial interplay of precision and lightness. The sharp geometric edges of the slightly skewed, dynamic structure create a fascinating contrast to the organic forms of the woodland surrounding it. The monumental construction floats confidently in the middle of the clearing. On a recessed base, an outer skin of woven metal mesh type Omega 1847, specially developed for this application by GKD – Gebr. Kufferath AG, clads the façade of all floors.

Visible from afar, the mesh mantle symbolises the netting of a goal and is the calling card of this hub of the world of soccer. The object-specific dynamics of the architecture are picked up by 312 mesh panels, each 18m long and 1.6m wide, which are tensioned on a slant in front of the glass façade and deflected through 90° both at the top and bottom.

Multifunctional look
With spectacular visual effects, the textile-like cladding of the home of FIFA communicates with the observer and with the surroundings. Depending on the point of view, the angle of incidence of light and the time of day, it reveals the view into the inside of the building, or conceals it and reflects the natural surroundings. As the sun crosses the sky, the metallic woven mantle constantly changes: monochrome gray in the early morning gives way to a silvery coolness in the midday sun and a warm golden shimmer in the glow of sunset. At night, the mesh, with its warp cables of stainless steel and its weft wires of silver-coloured, continuously-anodised aluminium, becomes a luminous projection screen for the lighting concept devised by the American light sculptor James Turrell.

The outstanding high-tech aesthetics of the mesh are coupled with decisive functional advantages. The shimmering mantle constantly permits a view outside from the interior, provides full-value sun protection with room climate control capability, and, thanks to its absolute resistance to weather, has a practically unlimited service life.

The chosen façade construction allowed the mesh panels to be suspended at the top using loops, a proven attachment technique applied in a number of projects. At the bottom, the mesh panels were friction-fitted to the substructure with Fusiofix – a special plastic adhesive technique that was especially suitable for this blended mesh composition of aluminium and stainless steel. This simplified the individual installation of the panels and made it possible to create the whole 9,000m² façade within just four weeks.

Zero-emission house
In terms of high-quality facility management, further arguments for the deployment of GKD stainless steel wire mesh were that the stainless steel used is fireproof, easy to clean and completely recyclable. It was the wish of FIFA that its new administrative building should be a so-called zero-emission house and should make a statement in terms of environmental protection. The use of energy-efficient building services engineering allows the building to do without energy from fossil fuels, with the result that it produces no CO2 emissions. Furthermore, when selecting the materials to be used, priority was given to their sustainability and energy efficiency, making the project groundbreaking in this respect, too.

Groundbreaking symbolic power
As a symbol of FIFA’s worldwide centre of activity, the foundation stone of the building contains a steel football 1.3m in diameter in which all 208 member associations deposited earth from their home countries. So the floating monolith sits literally on the soil of all its member countries – clad in metallic netting which symbolises its origin and its vision of soccer.

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