Hi I'm Nick, one of the founders of Detail Design Online - to get the ball rolling with our new blogs community here on DDO, I thought I'd dive into the blogosphere with my own musings, with my specialist subject being the architecture of the Olympics. With the games in Vancouver almost over, the world's Olympic attention turns to London, who of course are hosting the Summer games in two years time. Building work for this immense event is already well under way, with several structures rising out of the dirt in their new home in London's east end, previously a relative wasteland of old industry and railway sidings. If things go to plan, the majority of the work will be finished by the end of 2011, in the process creating one of the largest new parks in Europe for decades, and providing an exciting sporting legacy for London, both for elite and community athletes. Well that's the dream anyway - judging by previous Olympic parks, the organisers and architects have their work cut out to ensure the facilities are actually used after the media circus has left town... After the flamboyance of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the tone of London's is set to be very different, with the emphasis firmly on fun, involvement by all, and an effective legacy, plus it should hopefully be hitting the sustainability agenda as well (at least from an architectural point of view). In many ways, the proposed designs for venues follow this theme - aside from Zaha Hadid's Aquatic Centre, the buildings are generally quite restained, certainly when compared to those in Beijing. But set as they are within a lush, organic landscape pierced with rivers and sinuous paths, all the buildings should hopefully achieve a greater sense of belonging than those in Beijing, compared by some as just hulking megastructures set in a concrete plaza. Then it will be the people who visit them, rather than the structures themselves, that provide the colour and excitement. Over the next few weeks I'm hoping to write a whole series of posts for this blog, going into detail about each of the major venues for the London Olympics, with my own musings on their merits and let-downs...so watch this space, first up, the main stadium...
