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Analysis | Olympics | Handball Arena

BLACK MAGIC BOX

Designing for handball while thinking about unspecified future options can be tricky, but aesthetics have found a place

Words Eleanor Young

‘KEN SAID keep it simple,’ explains Make partner Stuart Fraser. But following this good advice for the Handball Arena from his boss Ken Shuttleworth was not so easy. The practice initially tried to keep the Olympic client (ODA) and legacy client (then the London Development Agency) apart: ‘We had two sets of plans,’ he admits. But both briefs and clients gradually came together and began to understand each other. ‘The International Olympic Committee is so demanding it leaves only a certain scope for change,’ says Fraser. But with no committed future users and suggested uses ranging from local sports hall to concert venue, the long term result had to be flexible. One satisfying moment came when the

design team realised that insulation specified for sound ingress at the Paralympic goalball – played with a ball containing a bell by visually impaired athletes – meant the arena is already equipped for concert use. Ensuring the concourse could remain as one volume with the arena to give lights and views

WWW.RIBAJOURNAL.COM : SEPTEMBER 2011

proved quite a battle though. This was only achieved with the use of extensive computer analysis, concessions with automatic fire shutters and level access to the built-up external entry concourse at one end. The rest of the box is made more interesting by an intense red undercroft to the tiers of seating and views onto the field of play and out into the park – as well as natural light from the fantastic

‘ Insulation specified for sound ingress at the Paralympic goalball meant the arena was already equipped for concert use’

TOP: ‘Keep it simple’ – an early sketch showing a box on a concourse.

ABOVE: Stripes of copper lend weight and elegance to the facade. Rooflights provide light and drama inside. Behind – on the other side of the Olympic Park – is Wilkinson Eyre’s Basketball Stadium.

ODA