London 2012 Basketball Arena / Wilkinson Eyre Architects

Edmund Sumner

Architects: Wilkinson Eyre Architects Location: Olympic Park North (Stop M), London Borough of Hackney, London E9, UK Project Team: SKM with Wilkinson Eyre Architects and KSS Project Year: 2011 Project Area: 11500.0 sqm Photographs: Edmund Sumner

The Basketball Arena by Wilkinson Eyre Architects is one of the biggest temporary venues ever erected for any Olympic and Paralympic Games and the third largest venue in the Olympic Park. Located on high ground at the north end of the site, and clearly visible from various vantage points in the Olympic Park, the Arena will provide 12,000 seats for the basketball heats and handball finals, as well as 10,000 seats for the wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby competitions. Despite a tight budget, the Arena is set to be one of the most iconic and visually dramatic buildings of the 2012 Games.

Edmund Sumner

The brief called for a structure that was simple to erect but also provided a worldclass sporting venue for some of the most popular Olympic events. Alongside these factors, sustainability was a key driver in the buildings design: the arena has been made out of robust individual components that can be easily dismantled and subdivided for reuse, with over twothirds of the materials and components used on the project identified for reuse or for recycle.

Section 03

Wilkinson Eyre has used an architectural language that remains distinct from the surrounding permanent venues, overtly celebrating both the best of British engineering and the temporary nature of the structure through innovative and economic structural and cladding solutions. Lightweight, simple building components have been used instead of a concrete structure usually found in stadia architecture, allowing the Basketball Arenas steel frame and cladding to be constructed in just six weeks.

Edmund Sumner

The 30mhigh rectangular volume (the equivalent of a sevenstorey building) is made out of a steel portal frame and wrapped in 20,000 sqm of lightweight phthalatefree and recyclable PVC. This translucent bespoke cladding is stretched across minimal steel framing modules that push the fabric out and create an elegant and threedimensional undulating pattern across the facades.

See the original post here:
London 2012 Basketball Arena / Wilkinson Eyre Architects