Venues
Almost entirely planned, designed and built by UK-based companies, the Olympic Park was not only built on time and within budget, but to a quality that has already secured a series of industry awards.
Legacy has been built into the design of every venue, meaning that all main venues will continue to serve sport and the community after the Games.
See more detail and video about the key venues:
Read the London 2012 Venue Factfile.
Video from the venues briefing, London Media Centre, 19 July 2012
Press Conference discussing creative and architectural design (and budget) of the Olympic Stadium. Panelists: Dennis Home – Chief Executive, Olympic Delivery Authority Rob Sheard – Architect for Olympic Stadium, Angela Brady – President of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Presentations from the venues briefing, London Media Centre, 19 July 2012
Venues infographic
This infographic shows the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Park in East London. Sporting venues are highlighted, along with information about their world class design and build.
Parkland
Surrounding the venues is more than 250 acres of parkland created out of what was once polluted brownfield. Carving out a new ecology of wildlife, plants and woodlands, it is one of the biggest urban parks to be built in Europe for more than a century.
The Parkland has been designed to mitigate the effects of climate change and increased rainfall in urban areas by acting as a sponge to help manage the water flow to the Thames. It will also serve as a major resource for the community, with more than 4,000 trees, 74,000 plants and more than 8 kilometres of waterway for local residents and visitors to enjoy.
Sustainability
During construction, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) set the most stringent demands around sustainability in the design, planning and delivery of the Olympic Park. The result was ground-breaking reductions in CO2 emission and new approaches to recycling and rainwater harvesting.
Read background briefing on sustainability.
Some examples of sustainability in action include:
- Design: Unique design of the Olympic Stadium enabled it to be created with just 10,000 tonnes of steel – the lightest ever; similarly the mesh structure of the Velodrome roof used a third less steel than would conventionally be required
- Transport: Stratford’s rail hub enabled more than half of all construction materials to be transported by rail rather than train; while the dredging of the Lea Valley canals opened up waterways for transporting materials, further cutting CO2 emissions
- Waste reduction: 2.3 million cubic metres of soil were cleansed of pollutants in the UK’s largest ever clean-up of contaminated land; while 98 per cent of the rubble from demolished buildings were reused
- Water recycling: The largest non-potable water supply network in the UK is treating wastewater from local sewers to flush toilets and irrigate parkland across the Olympic site – reducing the amount of potable water use by 40 per cent
Future of the Park
After the Games, the Olympic Park will be renamed the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and, under the leadership of the London Legacy Development Community, it will be at the heart of the ongoing regeneration of East London over the next 20 years.
With high quality entertainment, sport, leisure and services planned, and major efforts already underway to integrate the Park with the surrounding communities, the aim is to turn London’s newest postcode (E20) into one of its best.
Key plans include:
- New homes: The Olympic Village will convert into more than 2,800 flats in 11 residential plots, half of them affordable housing along with 240 wheelchair accessible. In addition, a total of five new neighbourhoods will be established around the Park, creating a housing legacy of up to 11,000 new flats and townhouses, with 40 per cent suitable for families
- New public services: Chobham Academy, a new educational campus on the Olympic Park, will open in September 2013, serving more than 1,800 students from 3-19 years old. There will also be a new state-of-the-art NHS polyclinic to serve local communities and new residents
- New jobs: With many venue operators already secured, a total of 10,000 jobs are expected to be created within the Olympic Park alone, with many more expected to follow as more investment flows into East London
After the Games, the Park will comprise two distinct areas: the South Plaza, which will focus on sport, entertainment, events and new visitor attractions; and North Park, which will be centred on waterways and parkland, while hosting exhibitions, regular cultural events, sport and outdoor activities.