Projects
- London, UK
- Completion: 2012
Populous is playing a major role in bringing the Olympic and Paralympic Games to London in 2012. Leading the sports master planning, Populous developed the original plan for facility locations, including the overlay planning for all venues in the Lea Valley and five sports in the ExCel Centre and the North Greenwich Arena. Populous continues to produce drawings and text to support the planning application for both the environmental and the transport impact assessment.
In April 2009, it was announced that Populous has been chosen to provide the Architectural & Overlay Design Services for the Games. Populous is also designing the main stadium.
The challenge in building a stadium for a specific event lies in creating a structure that is both temporary and permanent. By embracing the temporary, we have been able to explore materials, structure and operational systems in a completely different way. Each component takes a sustainable approach that uses only what is needed for the event and then transforms to a long term future use; the whole process uses a minimum of services. The articulate, elegant and lightweight structure frames the building Wrap. This porous, translucent printed fabric allows the building to breathe naturally, using a minimum of fixed mechanical systems. Through modern printing techniques, we can use the Wrap to transmit the Games' "look and feel" to the rest of the Olympic Park and beyond – to the city of London that surrounds it on all sides and the UK. The water course acts as a natural boundary, with spectator facilities – toilets, bars and food concessions – laid out along the soft water edge.
For a video preview of what the stadium experience will be like in 2012, click here.