London 2012 Olympic Velodrome

As one of the main permanent venues for the London 2012 Olympic Games, this was a rare opportunity to showcase the best in sustainable design. Working closely with Hopkins Architects and BDSP to create the competition-winning concept, we set out to demonstrate that large-scale, high-performance buildings can be built without a high environmental cost.

Efficiency of design is only possible when collaboration extends to the whole delivery process; working within a fully-integrated design and construction team underpinned the success of the Velodrome and contributed to its completion ahead of schedule.

With the aim to minimise the amount of material needed to build the structure, the building’s embodied carbon and operational energy demand was reduced as far as possible with a design that could be built quickly, efficiently, and safely.

The most obvious demonstration of its efficiency is in the distinctive shape of the building which tightly envelops the arrangement of the cycle track and spectator seating within. Structural systems in all three elements of the building – the roof, the ‘bowl’ of track and seating, and the concourse and lower levels – were stripped back to the minimum, with components adapted to perform multiple tasks in many cases. Some elements such as a secondary structure to support the cladding were eliminated altogether.

The servicing strategy for the facility favours natural ventilation and lighting, with key decisions based on a thoughtful analysis of the brief for lifetime use. For example, we provided the means to black out rooflights for competitions on the few days a year it is required, rather than making it the standard condition, eliminating the need for artificial lighting during 80% of the venue’s operational time.

The building’s unique shape led directly to the choice of a cable net roof – the only structural system that offered the flexibility we sought – and that could be erected quickly and safely from ground level. Again with a focus on efficiency, the main structure was used to balance the forces in the roof, rather than isolating the ring beam in the conventional way. This was a decision that required a considerable team effort to successfully deliver. Rationalisation of the individual shapes of the timber roof panels using a custom-designed software enabled more than a thousand different shapes to be reduced to just 19, simplifying manufacture and construction significantly.