Cabe and Design for London praise overall design but unconvinced about temporary pods and public space around the stadium

The demountable stadium design for the London 2012 Olympics by HOK Sports has been praised by Cabe and Design for London, although they express concerns about some unresolved aspects.

The idea that the larger upper tier of 55,000 seats could be demounted and recycled after the four-week games was praised by them as 鈥渟imple, elegant and efficient鈥�.


Olympic 2012 Stadium

Construction of the 拢496m stadium in Stratford, east London, started in May, yet the design for external envelope encircling the upper tier has still to be finalised.

The original proposal for a floating membrane 鈥渨rap鈥� has now been superseded by a 鈥渨all鈥� of vertical banners, on to which live images of the Olympic events could be projected and viewed from outside.

Cabe and Design for London want to ensure that this highly visible element is striking and encourage the Olympic Delivery Authority to involve an artist in its design.

The two authorities expressed serious concerns about the design of the proposed temporary pods and public space around the stadium, as they have not been commissioned from the stadium design team. They stressed that: 鈥淭he surrounding landscape must not detract from the stadium and visitors enjoyment of it.鈥�

And, while supporting the sustainable principle of recycling upper steel part of the stadium and the temporary pods, they urge the ODA to consider carefully how this will be done.

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