Part 2: Expanding History

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

The overall plan of the
London Olympic Complex

In 2012, London was home to an event that engages all of the many countries around the world.  The 2012 Summer Olympics was not only for the athletes, but also for all of the many spectators from each of the participating countries.  However, as these events end, after no more than a month, what is left is only the remnants and memories.  The challenge becomes what to do with these remnants, or the various stadiums and fields.  Can these remnants that are left behind, after the athletes return home, be reused to revitalize a surrounding area regardless of the projects age?

1. Olympic Stadium
2. South Park Hub and Plaza
3. Aquatics Centre
4. Waterden Road
5. Copper Box
6. East Village (formerly the Athletes' Village)
7. Lee Valley VeloPark
8. Cafe, gym and bike hire facility
9. Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre

The home of the various Olympic stadiums and fields in London are detached from the main city.  Being located in a more open and less developed area, easily allows for future development.  The challenge is how to use what is already there.  “Architectural subjects are users as well as spectators, participants as well as readers. In practice, this implies intensive programming, but also an elastic yet precise relation between spatial accommodation and formal invention; a loose fit between event and structure.”  The elasticity that is mentioned becomes known after the games have ended and the debate of what the complex will be used for begins.  The London complex stretches the program of each of the stadiums to accommodate everyday activities instead of the initially single use program.  Future development outside of the complex is left open for debate until a more comprehensive plan is developed.  Currently, though, development can range from residential to commercial, or a mix since commercial (retail) is already present.  Once development is finished, a “montage” of program and building design/look will be created of the various complexes and additional development.

The Olympic pool is the first stadium to begin to convert into a public facility.

Initially this separation from the rest of the city is necessary due to the large number of people coming to the city for the games.  However, after the games are over this detachment can cause stadiums to be left unused and in turn slowly decay.  London, though, is currently in the process of converting the various stadiums into facilities that can be used by the London people year round.  For example, the Olympic pool complex is being converted into an aquatic center and gym.  In terms of program, converting the complex into a facility common people can use leads to easy decisions later on when determining future growth.  Specifically, since the Olympic pool is being converted into an aquatic center, a more overall family oriented comprehensive plan could be developed for the surrounding area.  However, across the street from the Olympic complex is a large indoor/outdoor-shopping complex.  A similar example is the Museo del Prado in Madrid where there was a desire to “unify its separate buildings.”  “The design called for a “recognizing the city as the extended field of the new museum, however, we proposed to organize the new construction around the expression of the museum's public spaces rather than attempt to re-center the museum complex around a central building or ‘figure’.”  The Olympic complex as a whole and the area around the complex has to be re-examined to determine the best method of introducing new program types.

When referring to materiality, a person is typically referring to the material of the building, or in this case the stadiums.  Materiality can also mean the sites and surrounding areas materiality.  For example, London’s Olympic complex is comprised of wood, metal, concrete, and greenery.  Some of these materials are on the stadiums, but the others are on the ground combining the various stadiums into one complex.  The same can also be said about the shopping complex across the street, where there is greenery outside, in the form of planters and pathway formations, but also there are large amounts of glass and steel forming the primary building of the mall.  The materiality of the current complexes can bleed out into any new development creating a seamless transition into new and old development.  "Depending on the scale, materials can have effects on the surrounding area because they can become monuments or they can assimilate into the existing urban context.  I think as long as the materials of the building are structurally stable, the programmatic qualities are not affected negatively." -Devyn

"The range of this issue extends from carefully fabricated building details intended to coax out the latent, contradictory, and marginal aesthetic effects of constructed materials to complex, largescale geometrical systems that promote differentiated forms and structures for programmatic activities."

Will the materiality of the existing structures affect new development?

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