Oval metal fabric façade: Sports stadium in London

As part of an expansion of the Oval Cricket Ground, one of the world’s best known cricket stadiums, the façade of the sports complex was clad with around 500 m² of Tigris Twist metal fabric. In addition to its aesthetic aspects, the new woven façade cladding offers significantly greater safety for visitors to the stadium and functions as fall guard protection and a net to catch stray balls.

A trapezoidal steel construction with variable joint widths forms the basis for the oval shape of the design façade made from metallic fabric. When selecting the material, Rolfe Judd Architects from London opted for Tigris Twist from GKD. Thanks to its specific cable construction – here with weft wires (gold-coated) set 25 mm apart – the stainless steel fabric is twice as open as conventional fabrics. Weft wire apertures of up to 40 mm are possible. As such, Tigris Twist combines the flexibility of cable mesh with the openness of PC fabrics. The woven elements were fixed to the façade of the Oval Cricket Ground using the proven combination of round bars (in this case coated in “Venezia Gold”) and eyebolts.