“Ecolympics” ready to boil

It ́s the final countdown. After years of preparation, this Friday, July 27, the Games of the XXX Olympiad will be declared open in London. And then, the British will manage to celebrate what will be the “first truly sustainable Olympics and Paralympics” in History, according to London 2012 Organising Committee.
The issue of global warming has been studied since the 1980′s in the UK. Hence, this was the first country to launch a building environmental rating, BREEAM® (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), which was established in 1990 and still continues to develop. This environmental awareness has led the British to demonstrate now their expertise in this area, dealing accurately with sustainability problems for every specific field that such a huge event requires to develop.
Regarding the large scale, the urban planning of the London 2012 Olympic Park was specially designed to optimize energy demands and its distribution, along with natural resources, minimizing the CO2 emission-­‐ rates in construction stages, and supplementing these strategies with renewable energy supply.
Velódromo Olímpico, Londres 2012. Fuente: http://www.hopkins.co.uk/projects/3/131/

London Shooting Venue, Woolwich. Source: http://www.magmaarchitecture.com/home.html

Referring to a smaller scale, I will highlight three developed projects which, in my view, are the most interesting ones -­‐both from architectural and environmental perspectives-­‐. The first one is a temporary installation that will host Olympic and Paralympic shooting competitions, located in the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich. The whole complex -­‐designed by Magma Architecture studio-­‐ is formed by a series of pavilions with a translucent PVC envelope, which covers a simple metal structure on both sides. The interest of this construction lies in the simplicity to address the problems. On the one hand, the aesthetics of the project closely follows the program hosted –resembling a group of gunned white boxes-­‐ while solving the problems of ventilation, natural lighting and accessibility, through the perforated façade and roof. Furthermore, the design was planned from the beginning to be dismantled and relocated to Glasgow for the XX Commonwealth Games in 2014. To sum up, the complex achieves an efficient architectural design that minimizes energy use for mechanical ventilation, artificial lighting, and construction costs, ensuring also the entire reuse of materials.

Type section depicting natural ventilation strategies. Source: http://www.magmaarchitecture.com/home.html
The following project is the Olympic Velodrome which, from my point of view, is actually the one that deserves more attention. This sober and seemingly light structure, shaped like a hyperbolic paraboloid, was developed through a complex environmental design process. The project was designed by renowned architects and environmental consultants in London -­‐Hopkins studio and BDSP Partnership-­‐ who were advised by professional cyclists. The latter informed the designers about the ideal conditions to achieve the required comfort levels –in terms of temperature, light and natural ventilation-­‐ for a space with this purpose. Thus, the early interaction between specialists from different fields allowed sustainability to be an intrinsic tool from the very first design stage.
Olympic Velodrome, London 2012. Source: http://www.hopkins.co.uk/projects/3/131/
Olympic Velodrome, London 2012. Source: http://www.hopkins.co.uk/projects/3/131/

Finally, I would like to highlight a very small project but equally worthy, for its rigor and simplicity. The Olympic Primary Substation -­‐designed by NORD Architecture studio-­‐ is a structure which was designed to manage the distribution and energy levels. The project was developed in collaboration with EDF -­‐Energy and Olympic Development Agency-­‐, and their greatest achievement was to optimize the program, reducing one third the standard surface for an electrical substation, without increasing the budget of the project. Besides this, the substation has received awards for its austerity and robustness as well as for its successful integration into an architectural context of long brick tradition and legacy.
Therefore, after the hard work developed and completion of the projects, we just have to wait till Friday: “On your marks, get set, ready, go!”.

Electrical Substation for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Source: http://nordarchitecture.com/