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LONDON 2012 A DECADE IN THE MAKING PRESS PACK

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LONDON 2012A DECADE IN THE MAKINGPRESS PACK

BID

OvErLAy

MAsTErPLAN vENuEs

BrAND ACTIvATION

LONDON 2012A DECADE IN THE MAKINGPRESS PACK

LEGACy

www.populous.com

BID

Populous has been involved in 10 Olympic Games and were the bid architects for 3

consecutive host city awards for the cities of London 2012, Glasgow 2014 and Sochi 2014.

Our unique experience allows us to identify and optimise the use of the city and surrounding

areas to create compelling and compact venue distribution plans for potential host cities.

With our in-depth analysis, we work alongside bidding cities to provide a comprehensive

proposal to organise the Games that will appeal to the IOC and other major competition

committees. Since 2003's initial site exploration, Populous assisted the London 2012 bid

team with in house architects who created the bid winning London wide sports masterplan.

MASTERPLAN

Our process of masterplanning begins with a long term legacy strategy as the starting point

for creating vibrant and sustainable places within cities. We use sporting and entertainment

venues as urban catalysts and develop the relationship between social infrastructure elements,

and enhance them to add value and character to the urban realm. For the London 2012

Olympic Park our design approach was imbedded in our masterplanning, ensuring that the

personal experiences of all Games time and legacy user groups were considered from their

respective mode of transport to their seat within the venue.

VENUES

With more than a 1,000 projects completed globally, we open locations to the world – creating

iconic venues that become a financial success. Our portfolio includes the design of 3 Olympic

stadiums - Sydney 2000, Sochi 2014 and the London 2012 Olympic Stadium, which has

already become the centre piece of the park and a catalyst for the urban regeneration of East

London. The number of venues that Populous has previously designed and that will be used

during the London Olympic Games, such as the Copper box, Wimbledon, Wembley, North

Greenwich Arena and the Millennium stadium, amongst others, embraces the sustainable

concept of a Green Games presented in the venue plan development submitted to the IOC.

MORE >

www.populous.com

OVERLAY

The scale and complexity of an Olympic and Paralympic Games is huge: 35 competition

venues, over 150 non-competition venues, 30 client groups and 28 million ticketed

spectators. As Team Populous (Populous, Allies and Morrison and Lifschutz Davidson and

Sandilands) we have designed each and every venue, to ensure that the venue design fits

in and exploits its natural surroundings and is sympathetic to the heritage of the setting.

We always take a design-inclusive approach to temporary structures and major events,

maximisng user experience to create memorable places and spaces. Our philosophy of

‘embracing the temporary’ has allowed us the freedom to showcase London, using it as

a backdrop to create defining moments – beach volleyball on Horse Guards Parade, the

silhouette of a horse jumping in Greenwich Park – these will stand as a symbol of the

Games for decades to come.

BRAND ACTIVATION

Populous Activate is a brand activation and experience design agency. With our unique

understanding of sports and entertainment, our wayfinding strategies have created a set

of principles to ensure clarity of communication, inclusivity and good design. The signage

is integrated in each of the venues (Copper Box, London Olympic Stadium, Basketball

Arena and Water polo) and by considering spectators from the start, embracing the cultural

values and making them an integral part of the plan, we are able to ensure that every

venue, whether temporary or permanent, offers an enhanced experience to every user

and leaves a lasting memory.

LEGACY

Bringing the Olympic and Paralympic Games to London was driven from the outset by the

opportunity for a unique legacy that could be delivered for the city. The Games have been

a catalyst for urban regeneration in East London, fast tracking 25-30 years of planned work

into just a decade, creating the largest new park in the city for over 100 years. The Queen

Elizabeth Park is a vibrant piece of connecting tissue which will unify the four London host

boroughs around the River Lea, creating a new residential district, enhanced rail

connectivity, and significant job creation for the local population. At its heart will lie the

Olympic stadium, delivering an enduring athletics legacy and a multi functionality that will

allow it to play host to a wide range of sporting and entertainment events in the future.

www.populous.com

80,000 capacity

56 vomitories

56 different colours of glass balustrades

80 metre warm-up track

4,610 square metres allocated to toilets

360 rolls of turf

20,000 square metres of field of play

700 rooms and spaces within the Stadium, including changing rooms and toilets

5,250 people have worked on the project

45 Populous architects worked on the project

240 UK businesses have won contracts for the construction

BOWL

8,000 precast units in the bowl

9,250 cubic metres of precast concrete in bowl

154 loudspeakers in the seating bowl, suspended in 56 cluster locations

218 kilowatts of amplification driving a total of

1,250 loudspeakers throughout the entire stadium

ROOF

6,000 metres of cable in the roof

28 main roof column bases

260 metres width of main roof compression truss structure

310 metres length of main roof compression truss structure

25,500 square metres of fabric roof

112 steel rakers

LIGHTS

532 lights

14 sportlights towers

44 lights per tower

35 tonnes, each tower weights

1 megawatt – total power

INTERESTING FACTS

50 kilometres of seats lined side by side

34 unladen double decker London buses – the weight the roof can support

800,000 tonnes of soil was taken away before construction could begin – enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall nine times over

62.7 metres is the stadium height that is half the size of the London Eye and equivalent to the central span of Tower Bridge

1,000,000 people will visit the Olympic Stadium

LONDON 2012 OLyMPIC sTADIuMBY THE NUMBERS

www.populous.com

EVENTS

354

times London has hosted the modern Oylmpic gamesnations will participate in the Games

47 Gold Medal Events in the Olympic Games

166 Gold Medal Events in the Paralympic Games

27 July 2012 Opening Ceremony, Olympic Games

12 August 2012 Closing Ceremony, Olympic Games

29 August 2012 Opening Ceremony, Paralympic Games

9 September 2012 Closing Ceremony, Paralympic Games

10,500 competing athletes

30,000 media and broadcasters that will cover the Games

7,500 team officials

3,000 technical officials

205 countries represented this summer

26 sports that will be contested

39 disciplines

PARK

357 football pitches that could fit into the park

500,000 plants in the park’s wetlands areas

1,300,000 tonnes of soil that has been washed to get rid of contamination

EQUIPMENT

2,700 footballs

26,400 tennis balls

8 trampolines

65,000 towels

510 adjustable hurdles for athletics

600 basketballs

541 life jackets for canoeing, marathon swimming, rowing, sailing and the triathlon

53 sets of lane ropes for swimming

6,000 archery target faces

22 tape measures

356 pairs of boxing gloves

PEOPLE

15,000 volunteers will be on hand for the opening and closing ceremonies

8,000 people will carry the flame

LONDON 2012 OLyMPIC GAMEsBY THE NUMBERS

vENuEs

www.populous.com

London will be the first city to host the Olympic Summer Games for a third time, and the

organ ising committee intends to showcase the city’s capability in hosting spectacular, efficient

and innovative Olympic and Paralympics Games. Embedded in the London Games design

parameters is the need to provide for the future, the Legacy of a major event, which requires

transformation of the city and the venues – challenging the concept of building permanence.

To achieve a balance between the immediate needs of the large Games stadium against a long

term, small scale venue, Populous have embraced the opportunity to develop the architectural

language of venue design. We have progressed a new theory of ‘embracing the temporary’,

by exploring form, materials, structure and operational systems to bring a structured palette of

elements into a cohesive design. Simple legible forms develop, minimizing the physical weight,

fabrication time and embodied energy of each component – bringing together a compact

structure formed by demountable connections. This not only enables the overlay of theatre

and spectacle in staging the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the 80,000 capacity venue,

but also promotes possibilities of transformation after the Games down to a minimum

25,000 seat venue form.

The London Olympic Stadium is sited on a diamond-shaped island between two existing water-

ways, located within the southern section of the new Olympic Park. The seating bowl is compact,

bringing all 80, 000 spectators far closer to the event than previous Games venues. The design

makes full use of the site’s island situation, providing a complete circuit of spectator podium

concourse around the stadium, connected by bridges to the main park. This podium concourse

promotes the carnival nature of the event with a perimeter array of spectator facilities, particu-

larly retail and food service, distributed along the natural boundary of the water’s edge. During

the three hours of an athletics event, spectators are free to move from their seat out onto the

podium to visit these colourful clusters of concession pods, and view across the waterways the

activities in the adjacent park and venues.

The key sustainability criteria of reduce, reuse and recycle were adopted to create a compact,

flexible and lightweight design. The main Stadium structure is light and elegant, clearly expressed

by the external diagonal articulation of the white tubular steel of the roof and the internal slender

black steel supporting the temporary upper seating tier. Between these two frames lies the

concourse façade, the full height ribbon sections of the fabric ‘wrap’. The black and white seats

provide a neutral backdrop for the interior colour of the spectator facilities and pathways,

and the animation that spectators will bring to the event.

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Olympic Park

CLIENT

The Olympic Delivery Authority

ARCHITECT

Populous

CAPACITY

80,000 Olympic

25,000 Legacy

EVENTS

Athletics

Opening and Closing Ceremonies

LONDON 2012 OLyMPIC sTADIuMTHE VENUE

www.populous.com

Athletics is a sport particularly sensitive to wind conditions. Should cross winds or head

winds also be strong then it makes it harder for the athletes to reach their peak speeds.

Furthermore, if the wind speed is to exceed a record high tailwind of 2m/s to be broken the

IAAF cannot allow events to stand. Therefore, it is essential that the design of an athletics

stadium reduce wind speeds to within this threshold as much as possible. In extreme

adverse weather, it is common for athletics events to be postponed irrespective of the

stadium design.

At an early design stage, computation fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling was undertaken on

a number of roof coverage options to establish the optimum wind performance level, given

obvious cost constraints. Physical wind tunnel testing was conducted to verify that the wind

speed restrictions could be met. In comparison to previous years’ weather reports, the

results suggest that the wind speeds at the recorded points will be below the threshold for

the majority of the days of the athletic competition. From these results, the amount of roof

cover was established resulting in approximately two thirds of the spectators’ seats being

located under cover, which was deemed acceptable by the client.

To support this amount of roof, a number of design solutions were investigated including

conventional cantilevered solutions. Typically cantilevered solutions are economically

efficient up to a tipping point whereupon the amount of steel necessary becomes dispro-

portionate. The amount of roof cover and the elliptical shape of the seating bowl allowed

the design team to consider employing a ‘bicycle-wheel’ type roof, which can be extremely

efficient both in terms of the materials employed and economically. The design developed

with a truss around the perimeter of the stadium which is pulled into compression by a

ring of cables at the inner edge of the roof, and radial cables which run between the com-

pression truss and the inner ring, all of which are in tension. The overall ‘wheel’ of the roof

is therefore in equilibrium and simply needs to be supported from below and any rotation

resisted; which is why the columns that support the compression truss are angled both in

section and elevation. This creates a self-stable structure, independent of the seating bowl

to keep the dynamic forces of the two systems separate. The roof covering is a series of

pre-shaped PVC-coated polyester fabric panels, approximately 1mm thick, which are

clipped to the cables and tensioned into their final 3-dimensional form.

LONDON 2012 OLyMPIC sTADIuMTHE ROOF

www.populous.com

The demands of televising the athletics results in very high light levels on the field of play

in order to allow the coverage to include slow-motion high -definition TV. In order to prevent

glare for the spectators and competitors and lens flare for the TV camera, the angle that the

light falls on the field of play needs to be carefully controlled. Due to the compact design of

the stadium and the amount of roof cover, the sports lights needed to be located above the

inner edge of the roof. There are 14 lighting paddles (or rigs) placed on top of the tension

ring to position the lights in the correct location. Their form reflects the other triangular

geometries of the stadium design.

The efficiency of the design allows the embodied energy within the structure and fabric

of the roof to be kept to an absolute minimum. It is therefore one of the most significant

environmentally sustainable aspects of the stadium design.

LONDON 2012 OLyMPIC sTADIuMSPORTLIGHTS

www.populous.com

The aim of the Team was to design the most sustainable Olympic Stadium to date and

reduce the amount of steel and concrete needed, making it one of the lightest stadia of

modern era. The embodied energy was reduced by minimising physical weight, reduction

of fabrication time and details which allowed for rapid erection and later dismantling. The

design team adopted key sustainability criteria to reduce, reuse and recycle to create a

compact, flexible and lightweight design that allowed for a cost-effective life cycle compared

to similar building of this type and scale.

Possibly one of the most important factors that influenced the use of concrete was to

manufacture it at a batching plant, located next to an existing rail link on site, guaranteeing

high environmental targets were achieved. This enabled all materials to be delivered by rail

in bulk rather than by road which kept thousands of lorries of the road system in London

preventing possible congestion and pollution. Also having space for a precast yard on the

Team Stadium site allowed for reduced transportation of several major building compo-

nents. The ODA set up focus group to ensure that delivery of the targets set out in the brief

were met by the design teams. With the use of materials including recycled aggregates,

GGBS and PFA, the recycled content of the concrete was increased to achieve and improve

the ODA requirements.

LONDON 2012 OLyMPIC sTADIuMSUSTAINABLE DESIGN

www.populous.com

COPPEr BOxMULTI FUNCTIONAL SPORTS ARENA

For the duration of the London 2012 Olympic Games the venue will host Handball, the

Fencing discipline of the Modern Pentathlon and Goalball. One of only four permanent

Olympic Park buildings the primary objective has been to construct a venue that will

become a useful asset to the local community and an integral part of the legacy parkland.

Essentially a single clear span hall the venue is capable of hosting a variety of community

sports with the additional flexibility to host concert and exhibition events. The building

features a crèche, an independent cafe, a dance studio and a health and fitness club to

support day to day activities such as basketball, handball, badminton, boxing, martial

arts, netball, table tennis, wheelchair rugby and volleyball.

The seating bowl includes a fully retractable lower tier allowing the field of play to transform

into a space capable of holding exhibitions, shows and concert seating for 1500 people.

Designed to operate in either ‘event’ mode or ‘community sports’ mode there is a dual high

and low capacity method of arriving, circulating and using the venue.

This awarded Breeam ‘excellent’ venue boasts impeccable sustainability credentials.

The thermal envelope has been detailed to achieve a 20% improvement on the require-

ments of the building regulations. Low flow sanitary fittings combined with waterless urinals

and WC’s flushed with harvested rainwater reduce water consumption to a minimum.

88 roof mounted lightpipes linked to the lighting system provide glare free daylighting to

the field of play. The building is fully integrated into the park wide district heating and power

generation system. The seating bowl is conditioned using a low energy low velocity displace-

ment ventilation system.

The concept of a simple distinctive copper box hovering over the landscape has been

carefully detailed by Populous to ensure a timeless appearance that will sit neatly within

the park landscape. The essence of the building has been to create flexibility through the

simplicity of design.

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Olympic Park

CLIENT

The Olympic Delivery Authority

ARCHITECT

MAKE, Populous

CAPACITY

6,000 Olympic

7,500 Legacy

EVENTS

Handball

Modern Pentathlon

Goalball

OvErLAy

www.populous.com

This summer’s London Games will involve 26 Olympic and 21 Paralympic sports, almost

20,000 athletes and officials, 9.2 million ticketed spectators, 20,000 media and 70,000

volunteers. With these numbers comes a demand for venues and facilities on an enormous

scale – not only spectacular competition venues that provide the best possible sporting and

viewing conditions but centres for the media, offices, stores, laboratories for drug testing,

temporary start and finish lines, pedestrian bridges, plants in pots and thousands and thou-

sands of signs.

Making all this happen is overlay - the logistical, technical and architectural feat that

makes permanent venues, whether existing buildings or landscape, fit for Olympic purpose.

The design team behind the overlay for London 2012 is Team Populous, made up of award-

winning design practices Populous, Allies and Morrison and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands.

Over the years, more than 80 architects have worked on this vast project, with around 80

architects working on it at its peak.

In its standard format, overlay is used to create the hundreds of temporary structures

needed to house the various user groups – Olympic Family, media, workforce etc – that

support a major sporting event, as well as things like cabins, tents, generators, toilets,

and so on. At London 2012, overlay has been taken even further, thanks to a strategy

of ‘embrace the temporary’.

This strategy was adopted both to showcase the city itself - overlay gives the freedom and

flexibility to do things like stage beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade, archery at Lord’s

Cricket Ground and equestrian events at Greenwich Park – and to leave a sustainable

legacy for London, with no architectural ‘white elephants’.

Within the Olympic Park, overlay has been used to add vital flexibility to venues like the

Stadium. It’s also how the unique One to One Ceremonies Rehearsal Space – two full-size

replicas of the Stadium’s footprint – was created, allowing the ‘cast of thousands’ to

rehearse for the dazzling opening and closing ceremonies while vital installation work

carries on within the Stadium.

Weaving through every element of the overlay, from spectator seating to signage, is a con-

sistent and holistic design approach, with a joyful but low key feel that takes inspiration

from the vernacular of British festivals with arrays of peaked white tents, flags and bunting.

By using this carefully thought-out mix of permanent and temporary architecture in every

venue, we have been able to use the city as a backdrop, creating what will be a memorable

experience not just for the athletes, but for the spectators at the event and, perhaps even

more importantly, for over 4 billion television viewers worldwide.

We will also leave the right legacy for the Games and for London. Environmentally, econ-

omically and socially, London 2012 is the most sustainable Olympic Games of the modern

era. Team Populous are proud to have designed the overlay for London 2012 in partnership

with LOCOG.

Together, the complementary skills of our three practices mean that the athletes, media,

spectators and on screen viewers will experience something quite extraordinary this

summer, seeing London as they’ve never seen it before.

TEMPOrAry ArCHITECTurE

www.populous.com

Beach Volleyball has proved to be one of the most popular sports at the Olympic Games

since its introduction in Atlanta in 1996. The setting in the iconic Horse Guards Parade

venue, within an entirely temporary 15,000 outdoor seating arena – similar in size to

Wimbledon Centre Court, positions it to be one of the most-sought after tickets events for

the London 2012 Games. The stadium itself has been designed to create a 'theatre in the

round' lower bowl that will provide a high energy atmosphere, and a three-sided upper bowl

that will provide spectators and television audiences with an unrivalled view of the London

skyline beyond.

The venue will host the Olympic beach volleyball competition for a total of 11 days and

there will be three sessions a day for the preliminary rounds. Its seating bowl has been

designed to respond to its historic setting and the associated facilities will respect the sen-

sitivities of its built and natural environment. The warm-up courts and athlete/International

Federation accommodation is located between the arena and the Horse Guards buildings.

All accommodation in this area is set out symmetrically to respond to the Palladian archi-

tecture of Horse Guards. The warm up courts are located centrally to avoid any built overlay

affecting the views from the stadium. The warm courts are symmetrically set out to focus on

the equestrian statues of Field Marshalls Roberts and Wolseley.

The beach volleyball venue has been constructed in a very short timeframe, constrained by

the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee that occurred on Horse Guards Parade six weeks before the

opening ceremony for the Olympic Games.

HOrsE GuArDs PArADEBEACH VOLLEYBALL VENUE

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Central London

CLIENT

LOCOG

ARCHITECT

Team Populous

CAPACITY

15,000

EVENTS

Beach Volleyball

www.populous.com

Greenwich Park will host the Olympic and Paralympic Equestrian events, as well as two

of the five Olympic Modern Pentathlon events. It will be in use for the full two weeks of the

Olympics and the first four days of the Paralympics.

The facilities and works required to host the event are temporary in nature and all will be

removed after the event. Some facilities will be based within existing buildings which will

then return to their former uses. The brief requires a temporary arena accommodating up

to 23,000 spectators to host most of the competition.

For the Cross Country element of the Equestrian event, a temporary course of approximately

6km will be laid out through the park. A run course of 1km in length will run through part of

the park and the arena as part of the Modern Pentathlon Run/Shoot event.

The Equestrian events are broken down into Dressage, Eventing, Jumping and Paralympic

Dressage Competitions. The Modern Pentathlon event involves five different disciplines:

Fencing, Swimming, Riding, and a combined Run/Shoot event in a single day. Both the

Riding and the combined Run/Shoot stages will be held at Greenwich Park.

The main arena is located immediately to the south of the Queen’s House, centred on the

Grand Axis which runs through the park and the buildings of the Old Royal Naval College

(ORNC) and National Maritime Museum (NMM). In its scale and arrangement the arena has

been designed to sit comfortably within this broader architectural and landscape composi-

tion. The Field of Play is bordered on three sides by stands, the north side being left open to

allow the Queens’ House to provide the setting.

The south stand is designed to be low enough to allow a clear view between the balcony of

the Queen’s House and the statue of General Wolfe at the top of the hill to the south, a key

landmark. The view from the Wolfe Statue looking north toward the Arena, Queen’s House

and ORNC is one of several protected views across the site. Consequently the appearance

of the south facade of the arena will require careful design.

GrEENwICH PArKEQUESTRIAN AND MODERN PENTATHLON

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Riverside, London

CLIENT

LOCOG

ARCHITECT

Team Populous

CAPACITY

23,000

EVENTS

Equestrian

Modern Pentathlon

www.populous.com

The Riverbank Arena is one of the seven key Olympic and Paralympic Venues located within

the Olympic Park. It occupies a very prominent location in the Park, in the northwest corner

alongside the River Lea. This venue will host all of the Olympic Hockey competitions as well

as all Paralympic Football matches.

During the Olympics the Riverbank Arena will be active for fourteen days; more than any

other venue in the Park. During this time there will be three sessions a day, with two

matches per session (except for finals) for a total of 76 matches. During Paralympics, Foot-

ball five-a-side and Football seven-a-side matches will be held on alternating days for a total

of ten days.

The venue will complement the surrounding Park venues, while also being a prominent

member of other temporary venues within the Park, London, and throughout the UK. Follow-

ing an Olympics-wide strategy, the arena embraces the temporary whilst fully integrating

the ‘Look and Feel’ of the Games. This has been achieved through a close collaboration

between the venue designers and the branding and marketing team. From the start, the

design team has established a clear intent to integrate the graphic elements within the

architecture of the venue.

The venue will provide a great atmosphere for the world’s best athletes to compete in front

of enthusiastic spectators as well as to a worldwide television audience. Great effort has

been made for the design of the venue to rise to this momentous occasion, which is imme-

diately evident from the bold colour scheme chosen for the pitch. For the first time in the

Olympics, Hockey will have a blue pitch. This will not only help redefine the image of the

sport but also provide a very fresh look for this venue. Even bolder perhaps will be the sur-

rounding runoff areas rendered in London 2012 pink. This very striking colour will provide a

contrasting highlight consistent with the Games-wide ‘Look’ strategy. Great attention has

been paid to make this colour combination vibrant but not glaring; fun but sophisticated.

The Riverbank Arena is a temporary venue, with the legacy Hockey venue located just to the

north of the VeloPark at Eton Manor. In legacy, the site will become a key part of the future

Elizabeth Park.

rIvErBANK ArENAHOCKEY AND PARALYMPIC FOOTBALL

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Olympic Park

CLIENT

LOCOG

ARCHITECT

Team Populous

CAPACITY

6,000 Olympic

3,000 Paralympic 5-a-side Football

EVENTS

Hockey

Paralympic Football

www.populous.com

During the London 2012 Games ExCeL London will be transformed into 5 separate temp-

orary arenas hosting 7 Olympic sports, followed by 6 Paralympic sports two weeks later.

ExCeL London obviously has a great experience hosting major events and meets the criteria

for hosting Olympic and Paralympic competition.

The ExCeL venue will embrace the temporary, whilst fully integrating the look and feel

of the Games, in a close collaboration between the venue designers and the branding and

marketing team. The design team has established a clear intent to integrate the graphic

elements within the architecture of the venue to maintain a balanced ‘look’ .

Given the large scale of the venue and the number of events taking place, it will offer more

than a singular viewpoint or experience. As such it should be considered not only as object

to be viewed from outside per-se, but as a place offering a series of memorable experiences

for athletes, Olympic Family, media and spectators alike.

ExCEL LONDONFIVE MULTI FUNCTIONAL SPORTS ARENAS

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Riverside, London

CLIENT

LOCOG

ARCHITECT

Team Populous

CAPACITY

10,000 maximum

EVENTS

Table tennis

Judo

Wrestling

Taekwondo

Fencing

Boxing

Weightlifting

Wheelchair fencing

Boccia

Sitting Volleyball

Power lifting

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Central London

CLIENT

LOCOG

ARCHITECT

Team Populous

CAPACITY

6,500

EVENTS

Archery

www.populous.com

Lord’s Cricket Ground is situated in the northwest of London within the Westminster

borough. It will host the Olympic Archery competition for a total of eight days, with a Fam-

iliarisation Day held the day immediately before competition. The event will be held on the

venue’s Nursery Ground for the preliminary round on day one of competition and Lord’s

Cricket Field will host the finals from days two through to eight. Medal Finals will occur on

days two, three, seven and eight. Lord’s Cricket Ground will not host a Paralympic Games

event.

The venue, a world class environment where archery’s elite will compete in front of a global

audience, will consist of temporary overlay within the existing grounds, utilising available

structures and infrastructure in order to promote the surroundings whilst minimising its

cost and environmental impact. The ground’s unique and celebrated identity will elevate

archery to the world’s attention whilst aesthetically retaining its connection to all other

Olympic venues. This will be achieved through the choice of materials, colours, and clad-

ding elements; utmost care will be taken to sensitively insert the overlay into this venue

to retain this delicate balance.

The orientation of the Field of Play particularly observes the history of the venue. The archer

is supported by the backdrop of a historical Pavilion, yet faces and shoots towards the

modern, inspirational and forward- thinking Media Centre. The archer shoots over but does

not touch the cricket wicket, and through this action acknowledges the significance of the

sacred square and cricket’s presence in this Olympic venue.

LOrD’s CrICKET GrOuNDARCHERY VENUE

LEE vALLEy wHITE wATEr CENTrECANOE SLALOM

www.populous.com

The Lee Valley White Water Canoe Slalom is situated in the southeast corner of the Lee

Valley Park and will host the Olympic Canoe Slalom preliminary and competitions for a total

of five days, with a gross maximum capacity of 12,000 spectators. There will be one session

a day, lasting four hours per day. Following the Games, the centre will continue as a facility

for canoe slalom training for various levels of involvement; from community use to interna-

tional competition, providing continuing sporting, social, economic and community benefits

as an enhanced facility to the area.

The Canoe slalom venue overlay has been designed to take maximum advantage of its

parkland setting and of the BWWCC building. The seating arena has been configured in an

asymmetrical horseshoe shape to enable dramatic views of the course and from the venue

to the park beyond. The main stand has been designed with a continuous lower section, to

provide a coherent atmosphere along the arena for spectators and athletes alike. From the

prominently high tiers of seating, people will be able to see outwards towards the Lee Valley

Park, whilst being afforded excellent views of the venue at large. People accustomed to

using the park as a daily routine will likewise be able to share in the excitement of the

Canoe Venue atmosphere: as people walk along the tow path or cross the footbridges along

the main access route to the south, they will be greeted with spectacular views into the

competitions open-ended seating bowl stands.

The accredited seating areas for the Olympic Family, media, and athletes are located at the

south of the course. The momentous height of the bowl structure and dramatic contours of

the site will be a significant focal point to the venue.

The Canoe Venue overlay has been designed as an entirely temporary structure to reduce

waste to a minimum. The vast majority of the elements going into building this structure will

be coming from the rental market to which they will return post Games. As most of these

elements are extremely lightweight, the amount of embodied energy in terms of shipping

and erection are also reduced to a minimum.

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Greater London

CLIENT

LOCOG

ARCHITECT

Team Populous

CAPACITY

12,000

EVENTS

Canoe Slalom

www.populous.com

The BMX venue has been designed in conjunction with the International Federation for

Cycling, Union Cycliste International, and British Cycling. The temporary seating will accom-

modate 6,000 seats (gross) during the 2012 Olympic Games.

The BMX Racing event will be held on Day 12 (Wednesday 8th August) and Day 13 (Thurs-

day 9th August) of the Olympic Games. After the London 2012 Olympic Games the seating

around the BMX track will be removed and a Road Cycle circuit and Mountain Bike course

will be added in the immediate vicinity of the Velodrome and BMX track, creating a Velopark

for elite athletes, local clubs and community use.

The BMX venue is positioned to the north-east of the Velodrome, with temporary seating

either side (north and south) of the track. A ramp allows spectator access to the concourse

level, and entry to the seating bowl. The Olympic Family and athletes access their accredit-

ed seating from the ground level back of house area behind the north stand. A canopy

covers the accredited seating to the north-east and south-east of the stands.

BMx vENuE

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Olympic Park

CLIENT

LOCOG

ARCHITECT

Team Populous

CAPACITY

6,000

EVENTS

Cycling - BMX

PrEvIOusLyDEsIGNEDvENuEs

www.populous.com

Under the cover of one of the world’s most individual contemporary structures, a show of

a different kind is being staged. The arena which has been designed and constructed inside

The O₂ (formerly the Millennium Dome) forms the focus of an entertainment destination. An

extensive range of music and sporting events have been staged since it opened in early 2007,

hosting more than 150 events in its first year of opening, making it the UK’s premier venue.

The innovative design of the arena responds to its unique context, through an architectural

approach focused on the experience of the users. With the event space and seating bowl

forming the heart of the building, the public concourses and suite levels wrap around this core,

and focus outwards into three main atria which address the internal levels of the building.

The combination of judicious material selection and dramatic lighting emphasises the scale

and volume of the public realm. This is no more dramatically explored than in the triple height

O₂ blue room, where set against a backdrop of a 30m wide by 7m high projection wall,

500 visitors become central to the experience, interacting with their environment through

the latest technology. A backdrop of clean architectural and graphic expression acknowledges

the differing individuals who will attend the variety of events it holds, through a mix of bars,

private lounges and food concessions.

The logistical challenge of placing a building the scale of the arena within the Dome neces-

sitated that the roof would have to sit tightly beneath the Dome liner fabric, whilst maintaining

a minimum 4m separation for air and smoke reservoir provisions. Emergency exiting and

fire/ life safety considerations for the Arena will build upon approved solutions developed

originally for the Dome. The innovative structural methodology required to erect the building

cores and enormous roof system without conventional tower cranes lends itself to the fitting

analogy of building a ship within a bottle, albeit at the largest scale imaginable.

During London 2012, it will host Artistic and Trampoline Gymnastics, as well as some matches

in the Basketball and Wheelchair Basketball competitions.

NOrTH GrEENwICH ArENABASKETBALL AND GYMNASTICS

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Riverside, London

CLIENT

Anschutz Entertainment Group

ARCHITECT

Populous

CAPACITY

20,000

EVENTS

Artistic Gymnastics

Trampoline

Basketball

Wheelchair Basketball

www.populous.com

Populous has been involved in the redevelopment of a number of key areas at the All England

Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. The grandest part of the project has been the redevelopment

of the famous Centre Court. Populous have upgraded the south-eastern, northern and eastern

wings of the existing Centre Court and provided new accommodation comprising debentures,

hospitality and dining facilities to take the Club into the 21st Century.

The most dramatic feature of the redesign is the retractable roof. Its evolution has been

scientifically demanding: measuring 65 x 75 metres, the hydraulically operated structure is

a ‘folding fabric concertina’, with steel trusses supporting a translucent fabric skin. The roof

now allows the feature matches and finals to be played under cover during the inclement

weather over the two weeks of The Championships.

A key consideration is the internal environment during those times when the roof is closed:

both the players and spectators need to be comfortable. To that end, the design allows natural

light to reach the grass, while airflow removes condensation from within the bowl. With tickets

ever more in demand, an extra six rows of seating on three sides of the upper tier increased

the capacity from 13,800 to 15,000. New wider seats have been installed as well as new

media facilities and commentary boxes.

Stage 3 of the redevelopment has involved the masterplanning of the southern courts area

south of Centre Court. This includes the development of two new show courts as well as the

realignment of seven existing courts and new ancillary buildings including maintenance,

groundsman’s workshops/offices and Championship storage facilities.

New Court 2 (completed in 2009) seats 4,000 spectators and is sunk into the ground to

reduce its visual impact. The basement area contains player’s facilities and areas for officials

and ground staff. Adjacent to Court 2 are new turnstile and first aid facilities.

Wimbledon hosted the London 1908 Olympic Tennis competition – but missed out on being a

venue in London 1948 as Tennis was not on the Olympic programme.

wIMBLEDONTENNIS EVENTS

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Greater London

CLIENT

All England Lawn Tennis Club

ARCHITECT

Populous

CAPACITY

30,000

EVENTS

Tennis

www.populous.com

Since opening as the Empire Stadium in 1923, Wembley captured the nation’s heart as the

home of football. World-wide venue fame followed, with international events including the 1948

Olympic Games, England’s World Cup victory in 1966 and the Live Aid concert in 1985. By the

late 1990s it was agreed that Wembley needed full redevelopment to bring the English National

Stadium into the new millennium.

The new 90,000 seat Wembley Stadium was designed by the World Stadium Team, a joint

venture between Populous and Foster & Partners, as a multi-purpose venue to host soccer,

rugby, concerts and, by the installation of a temporary deck above pitch level, athletics when

required. The geometry of the design brought the Wembley heritage into the 21st Century, with

a new, open four tier seating bowl achieving excellent sightlines across the pitch, and improved

spectator comfort. Every seat offers more width and legroom than those in the old Royal Box.

A retractable roof on the southern side allows additional light and air onto the pitch and also

shelters spectators during events. Between events, the roof is left open, but can be moved to

cover all the seats. The roof and bowl were both acoustically engineered to replicate the famous

‘Wembley Roar’, enhancing the atmosphere and sense of occasion for both spectators and

players. Key to the roof design is the Wembley Arch, symbol of the new stadium and the longest

single span roof structure in the world. Supporting both the fixed and moving roof sections from

above, the arch eliminates internal columns, and bringing a new landmark to the London skyline.

As the venue for the biggest national and international games in English football the stadium

has a range of hospitality spaces that allow 10,000 people to dine before a match. These

facilities are designed also to be used on non-match days for conferences, dinners and other

events, creating Wembley Stadium as a London hospitality venue for events throughout the year.

The new Wembley Stadium opened in 2007, returning the FA Cup Final to its traditional home,

and the venue is now building upon its heritage to become the world’s most dynamic stadium.

In the first year of events, Wembley welcomed more than 2.5 million visitors and the sport,

concert and cultural events achieved an estimated global digital audience of over 3 billion.

wEMBLEy sTADIuMFOOTBALL EVENTS

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Greater London

CLIENT

Wembley National Stadium Ltd

ARCHITECT

Populous with Foster & Partners

CAPACITY

90,000

EVENTS

Football

www.populous.com

In 1995 Populous was commissioned by Cardiff County Council and The Welsh Rugby Union to

develop a concept design for a new multi-use venue to replace the existing Cardiff Arms Park in

time to become the main venue for the Rugby World Cup competition in 1999.

Spectator facilities and hospitality accommodation in the existing stadium fell well below the

standards now expected and seating capacity reductions, a result of conversion from standing

to seated accommodation, undermined the 65,000 capacity envisaged by the WRFU’s existing

stadium master plan prepared in the 60’s.

In response to these problems, the new Millennium Stadium, the first to be built in the UK

with an acoustically insulated retractable roof and the largest capacity of its kind in the world,

accommodates all types of sports, leisure, and cultural events to take place year-round and at

all times of day. The new stadium was a catalyst for the regeneration of Cardiff city centre.

The stadium interiors has a three-tiered profile, the middle of which provides club and

corporate seating with private Hospitality boxes to the rear overlooking the arena.

Stadium user accommodation is arranged over six levels and includes food and beverage

concessions ranging from fast food to reserved table restaurants, merchandising franchises

and retail outlets, a Museum of sport, childcare facilities, all designed to allow access for

disabled persons, and supported by extensive toilet facilities. Spectator accommodation has

been designed with degrees of flexibility which allow the stadium to adapt and compete in a

rapidly changing environment.

The city centre siting of the stadium allows easy pedestrian links with existing public transport

terminals.

MILLENNIuM sTADIuMFOOTBALL

KEY FACTS

LOCATION

Cardiff, Wales

CLIENT

Welsh Rugby Union and Cardiff

ARCHITECT

Populous

CAPACITY

74,600

EVENTS

Football

DEsIGNsOLuTIONHIGHLIGHTs

www.populous.com

Since 2003 initial site exploration, Populous has been involved in the bid, masterplan,

venues, overlay and wayfinding. Initial stages of work involved: Site Exploration, Masterplan

studies, Brief Writing, Venue Plan Development, Design reviews with ODA, Cost Estimating,

Operations review, Overlay development.

The Olympic stadium and the Handball Arena were successfully completed in 2011.

Populous, with a portfolio that includes the design of 3 Olympic stadiums (Sidney 2000,

London 2012, Sochi 2014), has now been involved in 10 Olympic Games and is currently

working on 35 competition venues and 110 non-competition venues of the London 2012

Olympic Games.

INvOLvEMENT IN THE LONDON 2012 OLyMPIC & PArALyMPIC GAMEs

www.populous.com

After the announcement in May 2004 that London had made the shortlist, Populous was

part of the all-important evaluation process, taking part both in evaluation visits and in the

presentation to the IOC, where the company helped convince the IOC Evaluation Committee

that the London bid had the right approach to create a memorable event.

In July 2005, London was awarded the Games, and Populous worked with LOCOG to review

the venue plans in detail and f ound that some of the venue proposals within the bid could

be adjusted to enhance their staging of the event. For example, at Lords Cricket Ground,

we worked with the International Archery Federation to realign the Archery course along the

axis between the main pavilion and media centre, which has actually enhanced the venue

for both athletes and spectators, while remaining true to the original concept of using the

historic setting as a backdrop to the event.

As the ODA started the handover of the main venues to LOCOG, the focus then shifted to

getting these venues ready to host Olympic and Paralympic events. Populous was appointed

by LOCOG to lead the Team Populous consortium, which had responsibility for designing all

of the overlay works for the Games.

Delivering a lasting legacy: in August 2013, the new Royal Park will be reopened to the

public, a permanent legacy of London hosting the 2012 Olympic Games. The Games will be

a catalyst for urban regeneration in East London, fast tracking 25-30 years of planned work

into just a decade and creating a vibrant, thriving place to live and work.

TIMELINE

www.populous.com

N

TrafalgarSquare

St Paul’s Cathedral

London Eye

TowerBridge

Tate Modern

CanaryWharf

GreenwichObservatory

Battersea Power Station

Big Ben

WembleyArena

WembleyStadium

Lord’sCricketGround

EarlsCourt

Hyde Park

�e Mall

WimbledonHampton

Court

HorseGuardsParade

Olympic Park

NorthGreenwich

ArenaExCeL

�e RoyalArtilleryBarracks

GreenwichPark

HandballArena

Overall, London 2012 will have temporary structures equivalent to the number of perm-

anent structures built for the last three summer Games, including 250,000 modular seats,

165,000m² of tents, 140km of fencing, 250 km of crowd barriers and 100,000m² of

temporary sports surfaces.

As part of our appointment as official Architectural and Overlay Design Services Provider,

Populous has also helped LOCOG to design the test event configurations. These crucial

events are conducted a year before the Games and test, venue by venue, issues such as

whether the field of play is right for the athletes, the movement of spectators and the

sequencing for building a venue. The test events allow any final adjustments in design

and operations to be made in good time.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was established to develop and build many of the key

venues and infrastructure and in any Olympic Games, the focal point of the event is the

Olympic Stadium. It’s here that the Opening and Closing Ceremonies take place and that

some of the most eagerly anticipated Athletics events, such as the 100m, take place. In

January 2007, Populous was delighted to be appointed as architects for the main stadium,

as part of the Team Stadium consortium.

Populous is the official architectural and overlay design services provider. They lead a

consortium made up of Allies and Morrison and Lifshutz Davidson Sandilands to help

deliver the project.

OvErvIEw

LEGACy

www.populous.com

The Games have been a catalyst for urban regeneration in East London, fast tracking

25–30 years of planned work into just a decade and creating the largest new park in the

city for over 100 years. Our philosophy of ‘embrace the temporary’ has allowed the free -

dom to showcase London, using it as a backdrop to create defining moments – volleyball

on Horse Guards Parade, the silhouette of a horse jumping in Greenwich Park – that will

stand as a symbol of the Games for decades to come. The Stadium will also deliver an

athletics legacy for London, part of which will be the hosting of the 2017 IAAF World

Athletics Championships.

From a technical perspective, the brief’s main challenge was to create a structure that

could be both temporary and permanent - capable of holding 80,000 spectators during

the Games themselves but becoming a more manageable 25,000 seat stadium after the

Olympics. “This scale of reconfiguration had never been attempted before,” says Populous

Senior Principal, Rod Sheard, “and so we had to ‘embrace the temporary’ and rethink

the way we design a Stadium, exploring materials, structure and operational systems in

a completely different way.”

There are many advantages to overlay. Firstly – most obviously – it means that you avoid

being left with any ‘white elephants’, permanent structures that have no use once the

Games are over. Secondly, it gives freedom: it’s thanks to overlay that we’re able to stage

equestrian events at a world heritage site in Greenwich Park. Thirdly, it adds flexibility to

permanent structures, as with the Stadium itself. A venue can be expanded to meet the

Games’ requirements, then revert to a more manageable size thereafter.

Overall, London 2012 will have temporary structures equivalent to the number of perma-

nent structures built for the last three summer Games, including 250,000 modular seats,

165,000m² of tents, 140km of fencing, 250km of crowd barriers and 100,000m² of

temporary sports surfaces.

KEy suCCEss

www.populous.com

The stadium and the masterplan as a whole have taken a new, sustainable approach to

temporary architecture – we use only the materials, structure and operational systems

needed for the event, then transform it for a long-term future use. This is part of our broader

thinking on legacy: it’s not something that can be retrofitted. The Games themselves must

be spectacular, but we believe to be truly successful you have to consider the long-term

impact right from the start.

In August 2013, the new Royal Park will be reopened to the public, a permanent legacy

of London hosting the 2012 Olympic Games. The Games will be a catalyst for urban regen-

eration in East London, fast tracking 25–30 years of planned work into just a decade and

creating a vibrant, thriving place to live and work. For some of our staff it will also represent

a decade of work, starting with initial site explorations in 2003 and running through to the

opening of the park in 2013.

Populous is proud to have worked with the London 2012 organisers on so many of the

steps in this Olympic journey, drawing on a broad base of skills to assist them in delivering

what we feel confident will be a truly memorable Olympic and Paralympic Games.

KEy OPPOrTuNITIEs

FINDING yOur wAy, Our wAy POPULOUS ACTIVATE STORY

POPuLOus ACTIvATESIGNAGE AND WAYFINDING

With the world coming to London in 2012, the biggest challenge for the wayfinding in

the London Olympic Games venues was universal communication. We knew we had to

create a set of graphic principles that would be flexible enough to be applied to different

kinds of venue while ensuring consistently clear, inclusive and elegant signage. For it to

work, it also had to be visibly different from the highly colourful look of the rest of the

2012 communication.

We devised a simple, adaptable set of principles that could be quickly tailored to the

specifics of each venue. Information is black and white, primarily in the form of numerals

and pictograms.

Where text is necessary we used FS Dillon; simple, compact letterforms built for clarity

and economy of space, with interesting-looking, clear numerals (very important in numeri-

cal systems), with a little bit of quirk thrown in. In the temporary venues, a lot of the signs

are painted directly to the walls – a clean, bold, graphic implementation. In the permanent

venues, we matched the material aesthetic of the signage to that of the architecture.

The outcome is a coherent, well-integrated signage system: a unique feel to each location

and usable, useful and attractive information in them all.

The Copper Box will be the venue for Handball, Goalball and the Fencing discipline of

Modern Pentathlon during the London 2012 Olympic Games. The Copper Box was the

first of the arenas to have a completed signage system apply our design principles.

Spectators enter the concourse level that encircles the building, which is divided into two,

the inner and outer circles. The main challenge was to direct people to the correct circle to

get to their vomitory – the area in which people have to orient themselves on entering the

building is relatively restricted; the information has to be quickly digestible to keep people

moving and avoid bottlenecks.

The signage is an extension of the architecture and is formally sympathetic to the building,

echoing the strong lines and the vibrant red of the ceiling, constrasting with strong and

simple black and white. Each sign type enhances its surroundings without sacrificing

communication.

In legacy the Copper Box will be adapted to become a multi-use sports centre for community

use, athlete training and small- to medium-sized events. The signage was designed with

longevity in mind, the materiality and communication is designed to last.

COPPEr BOx

From the moment the London 2012 Games starts – with 80,000 people in the main

stadium, and an expected one billion people watching on TV – there will be a global interest

in this key venue. But once the games are over, the main stadium is here to stay. When we

started to work on the wayfinding and signage, we knew it would need to work equally well

both during and after the games. It would be important to create a timeless, enduring

system that still subtly referred to summer 2012.

We found a palette of striking architectural elements in the monochrome structure, steel

beams, and concrete pillars. We were excited by the possibilities offered by the coloured

glazing, which runs through the whole spectrum as it circles the building. We set ourselves

the challenge of bringing colour to the signage in a way that responded to this, without

contradicting the strict black and white colour scheme of the wayfinding information.

We did this by using signs with a C shaped cross-section, referencing the structural beams.

The face of the sign contains black and white information, while the inside refers to the local

colour of the glazing. On the edge of the sign is a shard pattern detail that echoes the visual

style of the games: specific for 2012, but not overpowering for afterwards.

Outside the stadium, 4.2 metre totems combine steel and concrete, light and shadow, to

create impressive beacons, highly visible among thronging crowds, yet harmonious with the

stadium. Other signs fit perfectly into place – the concrete columns on the inner concourse

providing a canvas for large, functional block numbers. Giant male and female pictograms

were positioned on the roofs of the toilet pods, assisting with the identification of toilets by

spectators exiting the upper tier.

The main stadium’s signage is materially varied and sophisticated; the system as a whole

is a coherent totality, unified by the simplicity of the black and white information and its

pleasing usability.

LONDON 2012 OLyMPIC sTADIuM

BAsKETBALL ArENA

During the London 2012 Games, the Basketball Arena will host Basketball, Wheelchair

Basketball, Wheelchair Rugby and the final stages of the Handball competition.

The small budget for this temporary arena added to the design challenge. Our choice of

material and manufacture processes had to be carefully considered, without detracting

from quality and aesthetic. Simple stencilled graphics and a limited number of built signage

helped keep the cost to a minimum.

The arena is a maze of door and small corridors once you have entered the building,

so communicating spectator entrances clearly from the external approach is imperative.

Once inside the communication is staggered to help with people flows, so visitors can

navigate the arena easily and quickly to avoid congestions on stairways. The signage adopts

the use of black and white as a complimentary strong contrast to the red and blues used

within the arena.

The result is a simple, strong, temporary signage system with all the quality and aesthetic

of a permanent one.

wATEr POLO ArENA

The Water Polo Arena will host both the men’s and women’s Water Polo competitions during

the Olympic Games. A stunning arena, our challenge was to apply our design principles as

an extension of the architecture.

Our solution was inspired by the form and materials used in the building and the arch-

itectural concept of wrapping the facade. Our design intent was to add a little as possible

in the way structure, but instead utilise the given elements. The large entrance signage

reflects the boldness of the blue stair wrap, whilst complimenting the angles created by

the raw framework.

The venue needed minimal signage due the simplistic nature of the seating layout.

To communicate the more complex location of the disabled and baby change facilities we

adapted the columns to enabled four-sided communication, allowing a lot of directional

information to be collected together, reducing the need for more signage.

Each sign type is carefully designed and considered – the outcome is signage that appears

totally at one with the built structure.

www.populous.com

CADBury

As Official Treats Provider to the London 2012 Olympic Games, Cadbury needed to create

a range of exciting sales units throughout the Olympic Park and venues across London.

Following LOCOG brand guidelines, the challenge was to communicate the Cadbury brand

through the use of LOCOG graphics.

The Treat Kiosk is the largest sales point, chocolate block walls and a purple bursting

wrapper roof communicate the Cadbury brand without using the logo or Cadbury product

images. One end of the unit will be used for customer engagement, where a chocolate

sculptor will be creating Olympic themed sculptures. Smaller versions of the Treat Kiosk,

known as Treat Huts will also be located around Olympic venues.

Three types of mobile selling units will be moving around the Olympic Village and Hyde Park,

selling chocolate, treats and ice-cream. The same striking purple graphic is used on these

selling units as on the roof of the Treat Huts and Kiosks.

Following on from the design of the selling units, a variety of projects followed, including

designing the gift bags for use across all sites, temporary tattoos for children, chocolate

block designs to be carved by a CNC router and staff training materials..

www.populous.com

wEsTFIELD sTrATFOrD CITy

Westfield Stratford city is so big, it had to be given its own postcode. The centre would

be a challenge for anyone to navigate in itself, but it also happens to be the gateway to the

2012 Olympic park, connecting it to a major London transport hub and an international

railway station. Making the lie of the land clear would be crucial to the success of the area.

For everyone who would use it, whether passing through or staying local, clear routes

would be essential.

We knew that, besides highlighting the functions of Westfield itself, marking the major

routes in and around it was critical. To do this something out-of-the-ordinary was necessary.

We proposed compact but very visible signs – beacons to light the way through the dazzle of

shops. The resulting path cuts a calm, clear, reassuring route through the dizzying kaleido-

scope of retail.

Westfield Stratford City opened in September 2011 without a hitch. It attracted 1 million

visitors within the first week of opening, with footfall averaging over 900,000 visitors a week

in the first 14 weeks of trading.

CONTACT us

Patricia Fernandez

[email protected]

T +44 (0) 208 874 7666

Gina Stingley

[email protected]

Bindi Perkins

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.populous2012.com

Twitter @populous twitter.com/Populous

www.facebook.com/Populous

www.populous.com

Populous

14 Blades Court

Deodar Road

London

SW15 2NU

United Kingdom