For the first time, the authors, HOK bureau and Peter Cook showed the public a detailed drawing of the arena and talked about its appearance and construction.
In particular, the screen-temporary shell of the pavilion will be made of polymer non-woven material and hemp in order to minimize its harmful effect on the environment (after the end of the Olympics it is planned to dismantle it, so the question of safe recycling of this part of the stadium is already being discussed).
Vertical "cuts" will be made in this fabric, through which the audience can enter the arena (originally it was assumed that they would pass under the screen).
Overall, the revamped project uses even less building material and energy than before - although the original version was more than modest compared to other large stadiums built in the past few years around the world. At the same time, the architects emphasize the high level of energy activity in their work - in comparison, in particular, with the Olympic Stadium in Sydney and new football arenas around the world.
But the architectural community of Great Britain, apparently, has not changed its skeptical attitude towards the HOK project: from the Olympic sports facility is required not only and not so much environmental friendliness, but brightness and originality, which could adequately represent the city and the host country of the Olympics to the world community. In the meantime, the London version remains very controversial in this respect: its only unusual element is the notorious temporary “wrapper” screen, on which it is planned to apply banal photographs of athletes.
The desire of the Olympic Committee to save money is understandable, but so far this has resulted in either the maximum simplification of interesting architectural projects (a month ago, it was reported about another reduction in the cost of the complex for water sports of Zaha Hadid and the Michael Hopkins Cycle Park, which greatly affected the appearance of future buildings), or an initial design attitude of “modesty”, as in the case of the main stadium. The British are particularly worried about the unpretentiousness of their Olympic Village compared to the scale and brightness of Beijing's sports facilities: it has been argued more than once that the UK has lost to China in terms of architecture.
However, construction of the London stadium has already begun a week ago - three months ahead of schedule.
