This appointment inspired all those who feared that, in pursuit of low-budget decisions, the authorities would abandon the construction of any interesting sports facilities for future competitions, and the entire Olympics would be held under the sign of cost savings. Such thoughts were expressed a few weeks ago by Richard Rogers, who even called for a boycott of competitions for the construction of the Olympic Village and other buildings for the Games by architects, if the main criterion for evaluating any project is the presence of a developer offering to implement it for a minimum amount.
But unexpectedly, the situation changed for the better: Burdett was involved in the preparation of the Olympics, who will not only be able to support Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Gallery, already a member of the ODA, in discussing the architectural quality of the buildings necessary for the competition, but will also prepare programs of architectural competitions for their projects, recommend jury members, etc. These competitions (including for the project of a velodrome and temporary structures) will start at the beginning of 2007.
Also good news is the approval of the project for the Zaha Hadid Water Sports Complex, which is guaranteed to bring an element of high architectural quality to the ensemble of Olympic facilities. The appointment of Peter Cook, one of the founders of the Archigram group, as the architect of the London Olympic Stadium was also received positively by the public: despite the fact that he did not implement almost anything from his projects, in collaboration with the American commercial architecture firm HOK, a specialist in sports facilities, Cook will be able to bring the conceptual innovations that characterized his Plug-in City project to the traditional technology machine of a modern stadium.
