The Aquatics Centre is one of the iconic buildings in the Olympic Park
The great thing about the entire Olympic Park is its ability to have a positive future beyond 2012
T
hose taking the train journey from the east of England into London cannot fail to notice the amazing transformation of the area surrounding Stratford station. A once neglected part of London has been turned into a futuristic set of eye-catching buildings that comprise the Olympic Park – the centrepiece of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Grand designs One building that stands out is the Aquatics Centre, which will host swimming, diving, synchronised swimming, the water polo finals and the swimming element of the modern pentathlon. Coming in at an estimated final cost of £269 million, including legacy transformation, this complex, iconic, high-quality sports facility was delivered on schedule a full year before the London 2012 games were due to start.
The original design brief was one element of an
international competition run as part of London’s Olympic bid. The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) requested that all designs incorporated capacity for 17,500 people, as well as a 50m competition pool, a 25m competition diving pool, a 50m warm-up pool and a ‘dry’ warm-up area. After considering all the entries, the submission from internationally acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid was chosen. Explaining her concept, she says: ‘It is inspired by the fluid geometry of water in motion, creating spaces and a surrounding environment in sympathy with the river landscape of the Olympic Park. An undulating roof sweeps up from the ground as a wave, enclosing the swimming and diving pools with a unifying gesture of fluidity.’
36 ECA Today July 2012 Tender touch
The Aquatics Centre required a state-of-the-art electrical installation and ECA member Marcoe Electrical was invited to tender for the multi-million pound contract. For more than 50 years, the Welwyn Garden City-based company’s capabilities have grown in tandem with its reputation. Having worked on similar scale projects in the past – including Wembley Stadium and Arsenal Football Club’s Emirates Stadium – Marcoe has vast knowledge and experience of working on this type of project. The tender process was extremely thorough and necessitated the completion of around 650 documents. Mark Morgan, the company’s financial director, comments: ‘It took months to complete and involved working many evenings
Centre of excellence The Aquatics Centre tier 1 construction contract was awarded to Balfour Beatty in April 2008, and it began work in July of that year.
Dubbed the Gateway to the Games, more than two-thirds of spectators will enter the Olympic Park via a bridge that forms part of the Aquatic Centre’s roof. It is its spectacular roof that is the building’s most dominant feature, embodying Hadid’s concept. At 160m long and up to 80m wide, it has a longer single span than Heathrow Terminal 5. The building’s skeletal structure rests on just two concrete
supports at the northern end of the building and a wall at its southern end. The steel framework was initially constructed on temporary supports, before the entire 3,000-tonne structure was lifted up 1.3m in a single movement and successfully placed back down onto three permanent concrete supports.
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