Centre Foot La Tuilière, Lausanne

Football without limits

Three clubs from Lausanne and the talent squads of the Team Vaud reside on the site. With nine sports grounds, three of which with a grass pitch and six with an artificial turf and a multifunction building that houses dressing rooms, club offices and a cafeteria, the centre provides an excellent infrastructure for the teams. The site’s design is also of the highest quality. The architects wanted to create a spacious landscape park, which connects to the neighbouring grove Petit-Flon. The pitches are aligned along a north-south axis that serves also as a path for non-motorised traffic. Each pitch is situated at a different elevation to integrate better into the hilly terrain.

Webnet: the invisible ball catching net

The planners relied on bright and luminous materials to underscore the centre’s character as a part of the surrounding landscape. Webnet by Jakob Rope Systems was ideally suited for the ball catching nets. The sleeveless wire rope net made out of stainless steel has a high translucence and seems transparent. It is also virtually maintenance free and emits no noise when a ball hits the net.

The positive aesthetic qualities of the stainless steel mesh were even improved by innovative installation technique used in this example. At a mesh width of 50 millimetres, the lower part of the net is slightly overstretched in width resulting in a higher rigidity in the area where more balls will hit net. In contrast, the upper parts of the mesh are stretched in length while keeping the mesh width. Thereby, longer holes are created that increase the impression of transparency.

Jakob Rope Systems accompanied the 56 million Swiss francs project from the start. Apart from its product Webnet, it supported the architects in planning and design. In over 4000 man-hours, Jakob mechanics professionally installed the nets on site.

Architects: Graeme Mann & Patricia Capua Mann, MCM Architects, Lausanne
Builder: City of Lausanne, Service d’Architecture