[ Project focus: Olympic Stadium ]

T

he site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is one of the highest-profile construction projects in the world. Few of us will forget the scenes of jubilation when it was

announced that London had beaten Paris, the then favourite, to host the 2012 Games. As part of the bid, plans to develop land in the Stratford area of East London had already been submitted, and once the celebrations had died down, it was up to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to put these into action.

Grand designs

The focal point of the Olympic Park is the Olympic Stadium. With sustainability being at the forefront of the development, this 80,000-seat arena has been designed

to form a striking landmark that will be used after the Games as a centre for sport, culture and education. Rod Sheard, senior principal of Populus and Team

Stadium architect, says: ‘It is unique; nobody has ever done this before. That really set the agenda for the whole thinking on the design. So we effectively pulled it apart – we pulled apart a stadium into all of its constituent parts, looked at each element of it and said, “Why does it have to be like that? Why can’t we do it in a different way?” It is a first, a unique building in the sense of what we’re trying to achieve, but I think it’s also unique in the way we’re achieving it.’ The Olympic Stadium is located in the south of the

Olympic Park on an ‘island’ site, surrounded by waterways on three sides. Spectators will reach the venue via five

T Clarke currently has 81 operatives on site – during the busiest period of the installation there were 150.

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