2012 olympics – DesignApplause

London aquatics centre opens to public. Zaha hadid architects.

Feb 27, 2014

legacy mode*

The concept (2005>11) behind the London Aquatics Centre was to accommodate the 2012 London Olympics and then be reconfigured (2014) for a legacy mode after that. On 1 March 2014, the centre will be opened to the public offering swimming and diving lessons to all ages and abilities, as well as a variety of fitness and family sessions, water polo, synchronized swimming, diving, triathlon, sub aqua, gym and dry diving facilities. With a 2,500-seat capacity for spectators, the Aquatics Centre will continue to host national and international events including the FINA/NVC 2014 World Diving Series and 2016 European Swimming Championships.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: ‘After a post-Olympic makeover, London’s majestic aquatics centre is now flinging open its doors for everyone to enjoy, whether an elite athlete or enthusiastic amateur. All of the world class sporting venues on the magnificent Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park have secured bright, futures, dispelling fears of white elephants and helping to drive our ambitious regeneration plans for east London.’

Glazing along either side of the Aquatics Centre has replaced the temporary stands used during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

olympic mode

legacy mode*

olympic mode

legacy mode*

legacy mode*

[ design concept ] The architectural concept of the London Aquatics Centre is inspired by the fluid geometry of water in motion, creating spaces and a surrounding environment in sympathy with the river landscape of the Olympic Park. An undulating roof sweeps up from the ground as a wave – enclosing the pools of the Centre with its unifying gesture of fluidity, whilst also describing the volume of the swimming and diving pools. The London Aquatics Centre is designed to have the flexibility to accommodate the size and capacity of the London 2012 Olympic Games whilst also providing the optimum size and capacity for use in Legacy mode after the 2012 Games.

[ site context ] The London Aquatics Centre is located at the south eastern edge of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on the new Stratford City Bridge giving pedestrian access to the park from the new Stratford City development and public transportation.

[ layout ] The Aquatics Centre is planned on an orthogonal axis perpendicular to the Stratford City Bridge. Along this axis are laid out the three pools. The training pool is located under the bridge whilst the competition and diving pools are within a large volumetric pool hall. The overall strategy is to frame the base of the pool hall as a podium by surrounding it and connecting it into the bridge.

This podium element allows for the containment of a variety of differentiated and cellular programmatic elements into a single architectural volume which is seen to be completely assimilated with the bridge and the landscape. The podium emerges from the bridge to cascade around the pool hall to the lower level of the canal.

The pool hall is expressed above the podium level by a large roof which arches along the same axis as the pools. Its form is generated by the sight-lines for the spectators during the Olympic mode. Double-curvature geometry has been used to create a structure of parabolic arches that define its form. The roof undulates to differentiate the volumes of the competition and diving pools, and extends beyond the pool hall envelope to cover the external areas of the podium and entrance on the bridge.

The roof structure is grounded at three points of the centre (two points at the northwest end on the bridge; and one single point to the south east end). This structural arrangement ensured 7,500 temporary spectator seats could be installed along either side of the pools in Olympic mode (total 15,000 temporary seats) with no structural obstructions. After the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, this temporary seating has been removed and replaced with glazing panels, leaving a capacity of 2,500 seats for community use and future national/international events.

[ zaha hadid architects ][ london aquatic centre 2014 ][ hufton + crow ]

[*] photos courtesy of hufton + crow | other architectural photos courtesy zha

Samar singh jodha. Venice biennale 2013.

Jun 21, 2013

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Celebrated Indian photographer and installation artist Samar Singh Jodha will present his latest work at the Venice Biennale 2013. Jodha has been working on global issues with his art in Asia, Africa and the Middle East for the past two decades. At the 2012 Olympics he had a 40-foot installation on Bhopal-Union Carbide disaster at the Amnesty International London.

A the core of Jodha’ art projects is an involvement at a community level – which includes capacity building issues such as education, rural forestry programs and the revival of traditional craftsmanship. Jodha’s obsession with the nomadic and tribal communities from China/ Burma and North East India began in 2003 then he undertook a road trip from Kunming in South West China through Burma into the North East borders of India. The route had long been shut down due to political reasons, and Jodha made several unsuccessful attempts to cover the length from China. He finally managed to complete his journey, by approaching it from both ends in 2005.

He began photographing & filming the vanishing Tai Phake tribe of 1500 Buddhists originating from Burma. He set up an education system, helping fund a monastery building project and revive traditional textile looms. On one of these many trips to this region, he stumbled upon the fascinating habitats of the miners in the North Eastern borders of India – sandwiched between Bangladesh, Burma and China. The magnificent metal structures that jutted into the lush and uninhabited landscape, were an unreal testimony to man’s will to survive.

Jodha’s latest body of work is the result of this photo research carried out in the past one decade in the mining communities of North East India. This poetic body of work – printed with archival inks on precious metal plates like Copper, Brass and Mild Steel – contrasts and blends pathos and beauty seamlessly. [ samar singh jodha ]

The Venice Biennale 2013 is the chosen platform for showing Outpost from 1 June to 24 November 2013. [ venice biennale 2013 ]

The timekeeper. Omega and the olympic games.

Jul 27, 2012

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The Swiss watchmaker Omega has been timing the Olympics officially since 1932. In 1936 the starting pistol fired blanks and the bang set of the electric timer. In 2008 and 2012 the starter’s pistol is the red e-gun. The
e-gun is perhaps a touch more accurate than the revolver, but its main advantage is that it’s un-gunlike. These days, getting timing equipment through security checks would be a logistical nightmare.

Starting blocks were first introduced at the 1948 games.

All of the events at the Los Angeles 1932 Olympic Games were timed by 30 chronograph stopwatches, compared with some 400 tons of equipment used today by the company’s 450 timekeepers.

The OMEGA Scan’O’Vision is a combination of a time detector and a chronograph. In fact, the familiar image of runners at the end of a 100-meter sprint flinging themselves across the finish line isn’t a photograph at all, at least not in the conventional sense. No shutter opens and closes to expose a film inside a camera. Instead, photo-finish images are produced using a high-tech image-capture device that records up to 2000 “scans” (digital images) per second. Each runner is captured by this timing and image-making device as he or she crosses the finish line, and each appears in the final “photograph” above a scale showing the time that has elapsed between the start and the finish of the race. Each scan represents a “slice” of time one two-thousandth of a second wide. [ details ]

[ omega ] [ london 2012 ] [ omega: highlights ] [ watch pro site ]

Ikea to sell eco-homes to olympics.

Oct 21, 2011

The 1,200-home development to resemble a mini-Venice with moorings, a water-taxi service and a floating cocktail (energy drinks?) bar. via this is london [RK]