London Aquatic Centre, Stratford, London

Architect	Zaha Hadid Architects
Date Built	2011
Location	Olympic Park, Stratford, London
Description
The cornerstone of the London 2012 Olympics was the commitment to legacy. The organizers were determined to see that the games had a lasting impact on sport in the UK and they did not want to saddle London with sporting facilities that were unused and unwanted. To that end Zaha Hadid's wonderful Aquatics Centre was modified in order to increase seating capacity during the Olympics and Paralympics. Wings were added on either side to house the additional seating required for an Olympic event. Following the games the plan is to remove the "wings" that house the extra seating and reveal her beautiful sinuous building in all its glory. Below you can see that reconstruction in progress in July of 2013. John Armitt, Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority said of it, "The Aquatics Centre will be a fantastic gateway to the Games in 2012 and a much-needed new community and elite sporting venue for the capital afterwards. " Zaha Hadid's website says that the building's design, " ... addresses the main public realm spaces implicit within the Olympic Park and Stratford City planning – primarily the east-west connection of the Stratford City Bridge and the continuation of the Olympic Park space alongside the canal. ... The LAC (London Aquatic Centre) is planned on an orthogonal axis perpendicular to the Stratford City Bridge, along which the three pools are laid out. The training pool is located under the bridge whilst the competition and diving pools are within a large volumetric pool hall. The overall strategy is to frame the base of the pool hall as a podium by surrounding it and connecting it into the bridge." She adds that it is, "A concept inspired by the fluid geometry of water in motion, creating spaces and a surrounding environment in sympathy with the river landscape of the Olympic Park. An undulating roof sweeps up from the ground as a wave, enclosing the pools of the Centre with its unifying gesture." Writing in the Guardian in July of 2011, Rowan Moore said of the building that, "Zaha Hadid's London 2012 Aquatic Centre hasn't come cheap at £269m, but it is the Olympics' most majestic space .... From the outside, it's a car crash. Or a UFO crash. Or, to use the watery metaphors that are de rigueur ... it is like a vast turtle waving over-sized flippers. A great roof, whose beauty should come from the way its great weight came down to the ground at three points is engulfed with even bigger temporary structures, blown-up, go-faster versions of what might be seen at a county cattle fair, needed to house the 15,000 temporary seats for the Olympic Games. They will be taken away afterwards, leaving a 2,500 capacity, which is the most that any non-Olympic swimming event is likely to attract. ... The big thing is the roof, steel-framed and timber-clad, which floats and undulates, but is also palpably substantial. Officially, it's like a wave, but, with its combination of weight and agility, it's very like a whale. At either end a concrete bowl, containing the pools, the permanent seating and support spaces, rises to meet the roof where it descends. Along each side, in the gaps formed between the bowl and the roof, huge glass walls will be installed after the games, opening the space to the sky and the surrounding park."