Olympic Park 2012 – the Royal Scale Project
In London have just ended XXX Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012. Major sporting events took place in the Olympic Park in East London, DC Newham, East Stratford City. Before the Second World War it was an industrial suburb, and now, according to urban development London Plan, Stratford is defined as one of 35 major centers to transform the capital of Great Britain in the best city to live. Therefore, the design and construction of the Olympic Park was conducted in accordance with the long-term plans based on the principles of sustainable construction.
The Olympic Park in London, United Kingdom, is a sporting complex built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Paralympics, situated to the east of the city adjacent to the Stratford City development. It contains the athletes’ Olympic Village and several of the sporting venues including the Olympic Stadium and London Aquatics Centre, besides the London Olympics Media Centre. The park is overlooked by the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower and Britain’s largest piece of public art. After the Olympics, the park is to be known as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, though it will not be an official Royal Park of London. The Games was not only a grand event for London, but also an opportunity to transform this part of the city, turning it into one of the most attractive places to live and relax.
Really impressive is amount of works done in these areas, which for many years, were little used and where only were the railroad tracks and abandoned factory buildings. The new cultural value of this really royal-scale project - this is its contribution to the development and updating of the city as a whole.
The Olympic Park an area of 2.5 sq. km in size is comparable to the City of London and divided into two parts. In the southern part where were undergoing major Olympic events are concentrated iconic sports and infrastructure facilities, cafes and bars. The northern part is situated away from noisy activities and more close to nature. Thanks to the newest gardening techniques and technology of river and rain waters handling, 100 hectares of land have become largest European park. Along the river laid out gardens, where are grown 4,000 trees and more than 300,000 plants, carefully selected according climatic parameters. In general, these are native species of trees - ash, alder, willow, birch, walnut, cherry and poplar. This created favorable conditions for environmentally habitat of rare birds and animals: gray herons, song thrush, kingfisher, otter and many others. Flowering meadows and thickets interspersed with ponds, reed beds and swamps, which are used for natural filtration of rainwater before it enters the river.
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Text: Yevgeny Demin