London 2012 Olympic Stadium

Buro Happold worked as part of ‘Team Stadium’ an integrated design and construction team led by Sir Robert McAlpine to deliver the Stadium which, in legacy, will be a world-class athletics venue for the communities within London and beyond.

This collaborative approach has created a simple dismantlable superstructure with an innovative lightweight cable supported roof; significant milestones, including the lift of the inner tension ring from its temporary scaffolding structure to its final position, could not have been achieved without the ingenuity and integration of the whole team.

The ODA’s high targets and priority themes meant sustainability was key in informing the Stadium’s design and construction. The embodied energy used to manufacture the Stadium’s elements was far less than other Olympic stadia, due to the compact design. The permanent building services installation has been designed to exacting standards for limiting carbon emissions during operation.

The team’s commitment, innovation and close collaboration has resulted in an elegant, inspirational, efficient and sustainable Stadium that reflects the Olympic values of respect, friendship and excellence and above all supports and provides the foundations to the vision to “build a better world through sport”.

• 80,000 capacity
• Designed to be dismountable for future use
• Completed in budget and within schedule
• Outstanding safety record
• Re-use: Compression truss constructed from 4000 tonnes of unwanted gas pipeline

Related Disciplines

• Structural engineering
• Building services engineering
• Fire engineering
• Inclusive design
• Safe & secure
• Sustainability
• Lighting
• Computational analysis
• Geoenvironmental
• Geotechnical