Wide-angle image of the Basket Ball Arena, in the Olympic park, Stratford.
Wide-angle image of the Basket Ball Arena, in the Olympic park, Stratford. The Basketball Arena has 12,000 seats for Olympic basketball and the semi-finals and finals of the Olympic handball, and 10,000 for Paralympic wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby. The arena was also used as a holding area for athletes during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the games. Concept designs by Wilkinson Eyre Architects & KSS Design Group (sports consultants) were agreed in June 2008 and a planning application was submitted in November 2008. It is a temporary venue, and the largest built for any Games. In early October 2008 it was speculated that Wembley Arena could be used as a replacement venue for the preliminary rounds of the 2012 Olympic basketball tournament instead of the Basketball Arena, thus saving up to £90 million, but in March 2009 it was confirmed that a new arena would be built in Stratford as originally proposed. Instead of using a concrete sub-structure,a lightweight steel frame was used, with cladding. This meant the building (frame and cladding) was constructed in six weeks. The venue, a 30m‐high rectangular volume (the equivalent of a seven‐storey building) was made out of a steel portal frame and wrapped in 20,000 sqm of lightweight phthalate‐free and recyclable PVC plastic. This translucent bespoke cladding was then stretched across the steel framing modules that pushed the fabric out and created the three‐dimensional undulating pattern along the sides. An interwoven blackout layer was used in the roof fabric, this reduced most of the daylight during game sessions and maintained a fully controllable artificial lighting for use by the media and game spectators. The external fabric walls were translucent, allowing daylight to pass through during the day and artificial lighting to be visible during the evening. The architects worked with United Visual Artists, to create lighting and colour‐changing effectsfor the evening games.
Size: 4064px × 2704px
Location: Olympic Park, Stratford, London.
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: arena, london, sport, stratford
