33
0($&'%(($"*"%(%$(*"))%$,)))")(%'#')'&" *#&'$"-#&#&%$%$)$,'(%'%$'#'!$)) ,$))%0")')1%)(&))%'(%$($!1
hospitality facilities are located elsewhere in the park during the Games, the stadium has a relatively modestly scaled accommoda- tion for the ‘Olympic Family’ and heads of state, with lounges and a 400-cover dining suite located within the west stand, with direct access to seats in the mid-tier. And it is this relatively simple arrangement that has allowed a surprisingly compact seating bowl to be created, elliptical on plan, around the athletics competition field of play. The design process included close consultation with the athletes, former triple jumper and Olympic champion Jonathan Edwards for one, remarking that he wanted to “feel the breath” of the spectators on his neck. Taking inspiration from the 2012 brand, Populous has designed a striking pattern with the seats using black fragments on a white background. But much of the controversy has come from the issue about athlet-
ics sharing with other sports in legacy use. In Japan, systems have included moveable pitches, moveable roofs, creating huge rail systems at great costs, to which some argue that a better answer might have been to design two separate specialist stadiums. In London, the football lobby and athletics lobby have arguably created the problem. Back in the London Olympic Park, the main stadium’s roof is a
very lightweight tensile fabric affair, which appears to hover over the upper tier. This is surrounded by a white tubular steel truss sup- ported on diagonal columns that contrast against the black-painted ‘cooking steel’ that supports the upper tier. Johnson likens this roof structure to a ‘bicycle wheel’ (albeit an elliptical, not a circular one), with the ring around the outside of the stadium roof being like the rim of a wheel, and a series of spokes connecting to an inner ring. All the forces are thus in a horizontal plane, resulting in a very lightweight construction. HD television requires extra lighting, so 14 distinctive A-shaped 34-tonne rigs sit on the tension ring.
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