The 2006 World Cup served as a showcase for the extensive use of architectural textiles in Germany. Many of the stadiums which hosted world cup matches feature roofing and support structures made from high performance textiles. Furthermore, two of the world’s largest companies which design and construct buildings using architectural textiles, Hightex and Covertex, have their headquarters in Germany.

Textiles have a number of advantages over conventional roofing materials—such as prefabricated hard panels of metal or plastic. The advantages include flexibility, light weight, low cost and high coverage. These properties enable architects to incorporate wider and longer panels into their designs.

Today, the use of textiles in architecture is commonplace throughout the world in a number of structures, including public buildings, auditoria, open-air theatres, railway stations, airports, shopping centres, parks and landscaped spaces, entrances and walkway areas.

Architectural textiles are usually made from woven polyester fabric coated with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), although other synthetics and coatings can be used. For special properties and enhanced durability, fibreglass fabric coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) can be employed. In addition, pneumatically pre-tensioned ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) film or sheeting offers a number of design possibilities at relatively low cost.

Key fabric manufacturers supplying the architectural textile sector include Ferrari in France, Sattler in Austria and Verseidag-Indutex in Germany.

INTRODUCTION
ARCHITECTURAL TEXTILE ORGANISATIONS
TYPES OF ARCHITECTURAL TEXTILE DESIGNS
SAILS
ARCHES
HIGH-POINT SURFACES
SUSPENDED DESIGNS
ADVANTAGES OF ARCHITECTURAL TEXTILES
PROCESSES USED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ARCHITECTURAL TEXTILES
LEADING MANUFACTURERS OF ARCHITECTURAL TEXTILE FABRICS
FERRARI
SATTLER AND CENO TEC
VERSEIDAG-INDUTEX
TECHNICAL FABRICS EMPLOYED IN TEXTILE ARCHITECTURE
LEADING ERECTORS OF TEXTILE FABRIC STRUCTURES
COVERTEX
HIGHTEX
Company development
SOME NOTABLE INSTALLATIONS
OLYMPIC STADIUM, BERLIN, GERMANY
ALLIANZ STADIUM, MUNICH
SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT, BANGKOK, THAILAND
BUSAN STADIUM, SOUTH KOREA
NATIONAL STADIUM, BEIJING
CONCLUSION
List of tables
Table 1: Germany: world cup stadiums, 2006
Table 2: Ceno Tec: range of polyester fabrics for architectural textiles
Table 3: Ceno Tec: evaluation of performance of three key architectural textile fabrics
Table 4: Properties of ETFE sheeting