How Sustainable Is the London Olympic Stadium

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Built for the London 2012 Olympic Games, hailed as one of the most sustainable Olympic Games ever, the Olympic Stadium is the pinnacle of sustainable construction. The construction process utilised many new construction techniques and procurement strategies, allowing the designers and contractors to use less construction material and save money. In order to measure the sustainability of the stadium the Olympic delivery authority (ODA) created a tailored version of BREEAM(Olympic Delivery Authority 2011). But how much more sustainable is the Olympic Stadium than other recently built stadiums? The Olympic stadium was designed by Buro Happold and constructed by Sir Robert McAlpine (Mark Hansford 2011). Construction began in May 2008 and was completed just under 3 years later in April 2011. The Olympic Stadium lies to the south of Olympic park, the massive regenerated area upon which most 2012 Olympic venues have been built. During the Olympic Games the stadium will have a capacity of 80,000, but in post-games life this will be reduced to 25,000 with the removal of the temporary upper tier (Olympic Delivery Authority n.d.). Before construction of the stadium began the ODA were already actively encouraging the project to be as sustainable as possible. This began with a new version of BREEAM being established, and “was the first time assessments were created for major sports stadia”(Olympic Delivery Authority 2011). The BREEAM of assessing environmental impact was chosen primarily as it is independently managed, and can therefore be externally audited, giving the final rating greater weight. The BREAAM is also a “tried and tested” approach, it is in use across the world with over 200,000 buildings certified and over 1 million register... ... middle of paper ... ...: Architectural Press. Mark Hansford, 2010. atkins-2012.pdf. New Civil Engineer, Major Project Report(Greening The Games). Available at: http://www.atkinsglobal.com/~/media/Files/A/Atkins-Global/Attachments/corporate/twenty-twelve/atkins-2012.pdf [Accessed March 24, 2012]. Mark Hansford, 2011. Stunning And Sustainable Stadium. UK Games: A Year To GO, pp.10–12. Olympic Delivery Authority, 2011. 425009-143-breeam-aw.pdf. Available at: http://learninglegacy.london2012.com/documents/pdfs/sustainability/425009-143-breeam-aw.pdf [Accessed March 20, 2012]. Olympic Delivery Authority, Olympic Stadium | Venues | London 2012. Olympic Stadium. Available at: http://www.london2012.com/olympic-stadium [Accessed March 20, 2012]. Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, benchmarks.pdf. Available at: http://www.csp.uts.edu.au/resources/benchmarks.pdf [Accessed March 24, 2012].

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