Client: London Development Agency
Design team: EDAW (urban design & landscape), Allies and Morrison (architects), FOA (architects), Buro Happold (engineering), Populous (stadium architects), Arup and Atkins (engineering)
My role: Landscape architect for EDAW (landscape design and visualisations)
Location: Lee valley, London, Great Britain
Date: 2004
Surface area: 14 500 000m²
The most innovative part of the Olympic strategy for London2012 was to focus on the long term regeneration of the lower lea valley site from the beginning of the design process. The Olympic Games stage has been considered as one stage only in the development process for the long term Legacy master plan. For the future Lee valley regeneration, 8 strategies were woven together to an overall framework: reclaiming the river, densification, consolidation & chance, transportation& movement, access for all, landscape, ecology, infrastructure & utilities, places for people. Designing for the future, also means, that every investment made as part of the Olympics, should be designed to maximise its long term value: park, roads, drainage, utilities, buildings… Communicating the Olympic strategy was one of our tasks in the EDAW office when preparing for the bid: We created perspective views that illustrate the evolution between the Olympic stage and the final (legacy) stage or visualised the project was a page for the A-Z of London, the street map, that every citizen knows by heart.