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NON-TRADITIONAL STRUCTURES


the bowl while the sides stop the wind load on the seating structure. “The arena doesn’t have a front door


that leads into a sealed environment. The cover has a raised skirt, so it’s actu- ally open all the way around the ground floor – so the material had to be light- weight, Wright explains. “On the outside however, there had


to be a level of façade enhancement. In order to get the ‘wow’ factor it couldn’t be plain,” says Wright. “PVC was a fit for all these requirements. It was plastic enough for us to sculpt, it was light- weight and it can offer a blackout membrane for the lid. It is also an easy material to put up and put down quickly. The outer skin is simply made from 6m strips of PVC, which are stretched over a random array of radial steel arches to cre- ate a dramatic, undulating façade. Regarding cleaning, Wright says that


there is a lot of dust in the park while construction is still taking place but once washed down it’ll offer a translucent quality which will be enhanced by a light- ing scheme, which will be added in the run up to the Games. “The whole build- ing will be backlit and will have a strong narrative – whether it’s following the


Issue 4 2011 © cybertrek 2011


The key issue with the


design of the Basketball Arena structure is that everything that went up would have to come down


heartbeat of one of the athletes or the flow of the game, or the arena filling up and emptying, it’s going to be a real cen- trepiece in the park,” Wright says.


ADAPTING CONFIGURATION During the Olympic Games, there will be just 22 hours to transform the venue from the basketball competition to the handball finals. This will include remov- ing the basketball posts and installing the handball goals and field of play mat. During the Paralympic Games, there


will be just 12 hours to get ready for wheelchair rugby after the wheelchair basketball competition finishes, with sim- ilar changes needed. The seating bowl configuration during Olympic mode will


offer 1 per cent wheelchair user positions (with companion seats) and this con- figuration will increase to 2 per cent in Paralympic mode as well as an increase in wheelchair press positions. During this transformation, Wright


says the lower half of the bowl is re- configured to increase the number of seating positions and additional ramp access from the ground level, which won’t change the dynamic shape of the bowl. “The main challenge was ‘back of house’ and meeting the requirements to accommodate the bigger wheelchair design used for wheelchair rugby and basketball,” he says. So how does the design of the finished


product compare with that of a perma- nent venue? “Reuse is the key point of the whole structure. We’ve been honest about the materials used, for example the fact that you can see the temporary seating structures in the staircases. We’ve embraced, rather than shyed away from its design,” says Wright. “We are confident that there will be


an afterlife for most of the arena materi- als,” Wright says. “Who knows, we might even see some components at the next Olympic Games!” l


Read Sports Management online sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital 45


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