黑洞社区

The turtle bites back

Clearly a little rattled over her designs for Tokyo鈥檚 2020 Olympic stadium being scrapped, Zaha Hadid has issued a 1,440-word statement to 鈥渟et the record straight鈥�. Costs for Japan鈥檚 National Stadium reportedly ballooned to more than 拢1.3bn and faced 鈥渙verwhelming鈥� public opposition, before being cancelled. Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has come out fighting saying warnings over cost rises were 鈥渘ot heeded鈥� and that the escalating costs were not the fault of the design, but an uncompetitive tendering process and rising construction products costs. ZHA said it has written to prime minister Shinz艒 Abe offering to help with his review of the project and insisted the stadium could still be delivered on time.

On the slide

Anish Kapoor鈥檚 twisted Orbit Sculpture in Stratford鈥檚 Olympic Park has come to be known informally as a 鈥渉elter skelter鈥�. Well, now it could actually become one. Bblur Architecture and Buro Happold have submitted a 拢1m proposal to turn Kapoor鈥檚 divisive sculpture into Europe鈥檚 longest slide, with a drop of 76m. The team want to build a fully enclosed 800mm diameter stainless steel tube which will wrap around the 2012 Olympic Games tower five times, creating a 37-second slide, costing 拢5 a go. Like the Emirates Air Line cable car, it won鈥檛 go anywhere of use, but should be fun to ride.

Eyes down

Redrow has signed a sponsorship deal with Wolverhampton Wanderers. This is, perhaps, hardly surprising, as Redrow chairman Steve Morgan owns the Championship club. But punters in the stands will have to have exceptionally good eyesight to see Redrow on the players鈥� kit, as the housebuilder has opted to be the club鈥檚 shorts sponsor rather than shirt sponsor. Wolves players will have to get used to Redrow staff staring at them admiringly below the waistline.

Olympics price freeze

Ain鈥檛 no mountain high enough to keep Beijing from hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). China鈥檚 capital, despite a dearth of mountains and snow, beat Almaty in Kazakhstan by four votes to become the first city to host the summer and winter games following a secret ballot in Malaysia. Notwithstanding the heavy reliance on man-made snow, the games will be split between the city of Zhangjiakou 120 miles away, Yanqing, and Beijing, which plans to use its existing venues including those from the 2008 games. The IOC has estimated the costs for 鈥淥lympic villages, sports venues and other infrastructure鈥� to be 拢962m for the Winter Games. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, are rumoured to have cost 拢31bn, making it the most expensive Olympics in history.

Give us the tools and we will finish the job

One of my hacks was fortunate to attend a talk with revered architect Neave Brown, best known for his modernist housing projects in the 1970s. In conversation with the Architecture Foundation, Brown reminisced about some of his famous projects, including 70-home Fleet Road Estate, and the 500-home Alexandra Road Estate, both in Camden. Surprisingly, the much larger Alexandra estate was much quicker to build, taking six years, he said. How come? Brown told the audience Camden council thought as it had a buildings department, it could handle the Fleet Road project, not appreciating it was only equipped to do maintenance work. Consequently, the project took 12 years.