Olympic’s London Legacy

The 2012 London Olympic Park and its use after the games is an exceptional example of transformation. It delivered the largest event in the world on a complex post-industrial inner city site. And while doing this, it created a platform for a dynamic new development, and a piece of city that stitches together neighbouring districts with positive effect. The perspective beyond the big event is one core change pattern is at the heart of this success. ‘Beyond the big event” means to take on two challenging tasks in parallel: On one hand to plan and to deliver an event for the most talented sport people and for visitors from around the globe with extremely hard deadlines, and organizational and spatial guidelines dominated by safety, efficiency, crowd movement, advertising, sponsorship and a temporary TV spectacle. In parallel, it means to plan and to deliver spaces that are not ‘useless’ beyond the event, but that will have a long term future as lively urban quarter, as destination, as development platform, and as accessible and inclusive new focal point of a transformed metropolis. The reuse of the pre-existing structures and of investment for the event played a key role to generate this positive future.