This elegant pavilion at London’s Olympic Park is home to a box office, event space, bar, restaurant and roof terrace with panoramic views. We were determined to make it a beautiful, bold building, though not one so flashy that it would jar with its distinctive neighbours, particularly Anish Kapoor’s 114.5m ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture. And we were intent on building it sustainably.
The competition-winning design we came up with is simple and sophisticated. The pavilion is clad in black and white and rectilinear in form, comprising two blocks connected by a sleek white metal roof, with a wide pedestrian route between them. A 2.4m overhang emphasises the building’s horizontal lines, as do long strips of dark timber. These have been textured by a traditional, environmentally friendly Japanese charring method.
The pavilion’s floor, wall and roof panels were factory-made in large sections, which meant lower building weight, less embodied carbon, and fast, cost-effective delivery. The roof is highly insulated, fitted with solar panels, and covered at both ends in soil and greenery. Rainwater is collected for greywater. Such measures have earned the structure a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’.
A sleek, sustainable, distinctive legacy building for the Olympic Park – the Podium is this and more.
The beautifully proportioned rectilinear building is formed from a series of horizontal and vertical planes that enclose the internal and external spaces.
An interactive ‘pixel wall’, designed by London-based design collective Tomato, animates the Podium.
The Podium is one of the anchors for the regeneration of this site. We're delighted to see this legacy building completed and hope it becomes a key destination for visitors to the park.
Photograph of the Podium taken from the top of the Orbit. The building is carefully stitched into the landscape as part of a fully integrated park masterplan, designed in consultation with urban designers James Corner Field Operations.
