Analysis | Olympics | Olympic Stadium
LEFT: The triangulated ring beam uses standard steel gas pipe to good effect. Here you see a trial section of the fabric ‘wrap’.
RIGHT: Exploded diagram of the stadium structure – a layer cake of components.
53
five weeks in the summer of 2012. It is what happens afterwards that is important. This is why London has invested so much in the legacy mode of the Olympic Park. Even so, as I stood high up under the cable-net roof of the stadium on a sunny day, I imagined this could be a pretty bleak place to see a couple of lower-order teams play to a sparse crowd on a wet Saturday in February. You’d have trouble filling the place with your noise. The team’s first stadium designs played
with the idea of total retractability rather than demountability, a building that could mechanically expand and contract. This was, they assure me, perfectly possible, but too expensive. The fixed version as built is pretty good in summer games mode. Its muted colour scheme of white and black extends to the seating and the tensioned vertical fabric bands of the ‘wrap’ that serves partly to conceal the precast underside of the stadium. Personally I like the functional quality of this and feel the ‘wrap’ is visually unnecessary, although it may serve to deflect winds somewhat. Colour intrudes in the terracotta colour of the rubberised track surface, the green of
RIBA JOURNAL : SEPTEMBER 2011
‘ Perhaps the best tribute to the 2012 Olympic Stadium is the way its sparse, reticent structure looks all the better next to the horribly over-engineered ArcelorMittal Orbit’
the surprisingly small grassed area, and in polycarbonate balustrade glazing, in a scheme devised by artist Sophie Smallhorn. The triangular sports lighting towers,
perched on the band of tensioned cables running round the edge of the roof, are superbly delicate. And some of the best spaces architecturally happen outside the bowl: the team has contrived some fine intermediate areas with views up b etween levels, as well as all the necessary function rooms, officials quarters, athletes’ warm-up area and so forth. Perhaps the best tribute to the 2012
Olympic Stadium is the way its sparse, reticent structure looks all the better next to the ArcelorMittal Orbit – which appears horribly over-engineered in contrast as it ties itself into meaningless knots of steel. This sculpture/viewing tower, designed by sculptor Anish Kapoor with structural engineer Cecil Balmond, with architectural input from Kathryn Findlay, is, to my eyes and those of many others, an offence. Will we learn to love it? So long as the stadium stands there in mute reproach, I would like to think not. n
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117