Legacy was a central ambition of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Its permanent buildings provided a visual identity for the Games that was transmitted around the world, but would also reshape the city in the longer term. The two Olympic Energy Centres were conceived as both adaptable cornerstones of a sustainable energy network and as landmarks for an emerging neighbourhood.
Client: Olympic Delivery Authority
Dates: 2007—2012
Architect and Landscape Architect:
John McAslan + Partners
Consultants
Buro Happold
Parsons Brinckerhoff
AKT II
Solent Project Management
General Contractor:
Careys
Awards
Winner
Sustainable and adaptable
The Olympic Delivery Authority specified a 35km-long underground district energy scheme – the largest in the UK – which provides low carbon heating and cooling from biomass boilers and efficient cooling, heat and power (CCHP) systems housed in the Corten steel-clad Energy Centres on the edges of the Olympic Park.
The first – and the larger of the two – is known as Kings Yard, and marks the western entrance to the park from Hackney Wick. It supplies power to the national grid, along with heating and cooling to sports facilities and associated housing. There, the biomass boilers and woodchip store are housed within an adjacent 19th-century canalside factory, refurbished as part of the project and connected to the new structure by a Corten-clad bridge.
The second Energy Centre, known as Stratford City, sits alongside the Stratford transport interchange to the east, and was built to supply power to the grid as well as heating and cooling to Westfield shopping centre and the associated commercial and office developments. Overall, the installed scheme was calculated to save up to 12,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, compared with conventional energy supplies.
Both buildings were designed to accommodate future change in response to increased demand or improvements in technology. Modular steel frames with large spans and high ceilings create flexibility, and the Corten cladding panels are removable to allow easy replacement of mechanical plant over time. Coupled with prefabricated concrete floors, the lightweight frames also allowed fast construction to meet the tight schedule of the Games.
Civic role
The two 18m-high buildings share a confident, expressive architectural language that celebrates sustainable power generation and their prominent positions on the edges of what is now the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Flues rising to 45m in height identify the buildings from afar, and were given a sculptural form with an angled cap like a periscope, so that the buildings appear to gaze across the landscape. Their boxy proportions and cladding of rusty weathering steel allude to the industrial heritage of the area. In the facades, the material appears as a filigree mesh that lends fine texture to the bulky form required by the mechanical equipment within. To create additional interest for passers-by, external tanks and escape stairs are picked out in bold black and red, and the ground floors of the buildings are glazed to reveal the work of energy generation.
Legacy
Since the conclusion of the Games, the Olympic Park and surrounding neighbourhoods have undergone rapid development, and the Energy Centres now supply thousands of homes as well as commercial buildings, museums and the retained sporting venues. Like London’s great historic power stations, they are highly visible within the communities they serve, and have an unashamedly monumental character commensurate with the importance of power generation, and the buildings’ role in spreading awareness of sustainability.
