Architects:kadawittfeldarchitektur

Area:57000 m²

Year:2022

Photographs:G.Esch, Eduardo Perez, Nikolai Benner

City: Frankfurt am Main

Country: Germany

The DFB Campus with its football pitches, sports facilities, and new building is embedded in Frankfurt’s city forest on the site of the former racecourse. It is within this green setting with a natural boundary to the surrounding areas that the mixture of structural components, sports fields, small open places, and clearings form a joint campus. The required space, including administrative areas, press center, conference rooms, athletes’ accommodation, and state-of-the-art sports facilities, is arranged below a single long-span roof around the individual sports fields and exterior space.

The north-south-oriented covered sports boulevard connects all components and facilitates orientation. It has been designed as a communicative link with casual meeting places to watch the activities on the football pitches but also brings together the two independent institutions, administration, and academy.

Sports forms architecture. The new DFB Campus is positioned in a clearing in Frankfurt’s city forest. The green setting is not only beneficial in terms of urban design but also in the way it protects the athletes and other building occupants from external influences and enables them to feel at ease in a highly focussed atmosphere.

The ensemble of buildings creates spatial connectivity which groups the different functions in a meaningful way, encourages both concentrated work and training, and, at the same time, provides an inspiring ambiance for casual meetups. The design is not a conglomeration of individual buildings, which produce leftover spaces; rather, the playing fields themselves have become an integral part of the overall concept. The result is a range of open and more secluded areas carefully refined during the planning process. The building is embedded within this environment, provides numerous connections between the indoor and outdoor space, and incorporates some of the sports facilities in the covered area. This has the effect that spatial relationships are created with a variety of visual links, which boost the campus spirit and make sure that football is always in the limelight.

A building like a city. The DFB Campus is like a small city with a communal roof that covers a cluster of different districts. The boulevard that guides members of staff, athletes, and visitors through the building is a key feature. Designed as a broad open space, it offers views into all levels of the building and the exterior space beyond the tall glass facades. This concept naturally separates the building into representative and private zones. As a result, the administrative area faces the tree-lined forecourt on Kennedyallee. In contrast, the dining area and campus form a transition zone to the exercise rooms, the athletes’ accommodation, the indoor football arena, and the multi-purpose hall. Instead of fixed boundaries, the space is characterized by close relationships and short distances, for example, the proximity of the press and conference rooms to the administration or the athletes’ rooms to the sports fields. The exercise zone, including the sports lab to test new training methods, is immediately adjacent to the campus seminar rooms featuring a roof terrace that offers views across the football pitches to Frankfurt’s skyline in the distance.

The boulevard – a thoroughfare for communication. The boulevard is the main artery of the campus. It runs the full length of the building and forms a link between the individual areas on the ground floor. The fully glazed space facilitates orientation and functions as a communication zone with an inviting atmosphere. Throughout the length of the boulevard, people can stop for a quick chat, watch the activities on the sports fields and easily find the logically arranged areas for administration, academy, and athletes’ accommodation. The boulevard is divided into two sections.

In the north, it provides access to the sports facilities with the more sheltered, internal functions including the academy, the athletes’ accommodation, exercise rooms, the indoor football arena, a multi-purpose hall as well as the market square and main entrance on Schwarzwaldstrasse. The public representative zone is located in the south and accessed via the main entrance on Kennedyallee. This is where the areas for the administration, press, and visitors are located including a fan shop and large meeting rooms. The boulevard broadens at both entrance zones forming welcoming “squares”. Up above, the connecting roof rises to greater heights and, as a result, adds rhythm to the interior space.

Interior: United in Diversity. The interior design concept reflects the motto “United in Diversity”. Warm colors and high-quality materials in the administration and a touch of color with more dynamic surfaces in the world of sports convey the differences in scale. The uniform Bolidt flooring on all levels of the boulevard connects the various zones. Oblique walls with different surfaces and colors open vistas, while the folded roof above spans the entirety like a network of nodes and bars with inset triangular panels made of perforated plasterboard. As a continuous theme, the roof connects everything that the new building intends to unite: office work and active motion, play and advanced science, a welcoming feel and protected space. The continuous ribbon-like flow of the different levels is a further distinctive feature that characterizes the building both inside and out.

For residents and visitors. Workshops and close cooperation with all stakeholders were key in identifying the essentials of modern collaboration and then formulating the requirements for the DFB Campus. The building offers a mix of cellular offices and zones for small teams with large interconnecting open spaces based on the latest findings on stimulating work environments. Places to retreat and meet encourage both concentrated work as well as informal exchange – an approach that has been recognized as the most important element of a successful work culture. At the same time, the individual functions are characterized by unique features, from the offices and classrooms to the sports facilities and athletes’ accommodations with bedrooms and lounge areas.