Hunter Douglas scored a win when its award-winning HeartFelt® felt ceiling system was installed in the new German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund – DFB) campus in Frankfurt am Main.

Modular Ceiling System

The architectural firm kadawittfeldarchitektur specified HeartFelt® in the DFB offices as a modular ceiling system and in the press room as a linear wall system, totalling 1200m² as part of the 150 million euro campus project.

One location

The largest investment project in the history of the DFB, includes a 15-hectare site in the Niederrad district of the city. The association’s main focus when constructing the new building was the consolidation of all departments (management, facilities, and training centres) in one location, as these were previously spread across Germany.

New building complex

The result is a new building complex of more than 49,000m², comprising offices, conference and training rooms, sports and training facilities, a gym, bistro and press conference room. It also includes a football hall, an athlete’s house, a multi-purpose hall as well as three and a half natural grass pitches and other training areas.

Wall Covering

Lars Junold, project manager at kadawittfeldarchitektur, turned to Hunter Douglas Architectural, with whom it has worked previously, for the ceiling furnishings and selected HeartFelt®. The grey 7596 panels were specified first for the ceilings of the office areas and hallways of the academy, but after seeing the results it was quickly selected as a wall covering in the press room.

Press room

HeartFelt® also scores highly as a vertical wall covering in the press room, where acoustics are particularly important. Junold said: “In the press room, the topic of acoustics and speech intelligibility were of particular importance. This meant it was essential to consider the wall surfaces as well. The HeartFelt® system allows panels to be installed not only horizontally on the ceiling, but also as vertical wall cladding. This vertical structure on the wall was particularly interesting for us as it resulted in a great spatial result.”

 Sound-absorbing material

The office areas in the new DFB building complex are open plan, so while they are spacious and airy, it is important to get the acoustics right so that it is comfortable to be in. Marco Moryson, Project Manager at Hunter Douglas Architectural Germany, explained why HeartFelt®, which has a sound absorption coefficient (αw) between 0.45 (module 100) and 0.7 (module 50), was a good choice.

 “With HeartFelt® felt panels made of thermoformed PES nonwoven fibres, the acoustics in any room can be precisely influenced,” he said. “Felt is a sound-absorbing material – a property that is crucial for good building acoustics. This sound-absorbing effect, combined with the design and distance of the panels from each other, as well as the height at which the ceiling system is suspended, determines how sound moves through the space.”