London Olympic Velodrome

The 21,700m2 Velodrome was inspired by the activity which takes place within it; from the beginning of the project we wanted to apply the same level of design creativity and rigor of engineering that goes into a bicycle to the building itself. It was important to us that this not serve to mimic but rather that it manifest itself as a three-dimensional response to the functional requirements of the stadium and its aesthetics and shape thus emerged directly from this process.

The Velodrome contains 6,000 seats in both Olympic and Legacy Modes and embraces both contexts with minimal transformation. The concrete upper and lower seating tiers are split by the public circulation concourse which allows spectators to maintain contact with the action on the track as they move around the building. The concourse is fully glazed and helps to visually separate the Western Red Cedarclad upper bowl from the backofhouse accommodation hidden behind the landscaped earth berms below. The structurallyefficient and delicate cablenet roof above helped to save 1000 tonnes of steel when compared to a standard roof of equal size.

The client set a number of challenging sustainability targets for the project; Our design strategy focused on minimizing demand for energy and water and integrating this into the fabric of the building to reduce reliance on systems and infrastructure. The daylighting strategy applied to the main cycling arena exemplifies this approach. Rather than investing in photovoltaic panels on the roof of the or in other 'bolt-on' technologies, designing for maximum daylight proved to be a much more economical solution which yielded far greater benefits in terms of reducing carbon emissions. Other notable features include high levels of insulation coupled with natural ventilation to reduce energy demand and rainwater harvesting which reduces potable water demand by 75% for the building.