Olympic Park 2012

An art award from CREATE, the cultural partnership of the six east London boroughs which surround the Olympic Park, is now open for submissions. Any resident of Barking and Dagenham, Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets or Waltham Forest can enter to win a commission of 50,000 GBP. Details here : http://createlondon.org/art-award-call-for-submissions/

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With the introduction of ‘Localism’ there may be further changes to the governance of this Olympic Park site. After games time it could be that a ‘Mayoral Development Corporation’ would become responsible for the rates and development permissions in the area. The UK’s professional planning institution the RTPI was focusing on the park recently with an event in Stratford and one of the presentations suggested this may well happen. Dawn Hawthorn from the GLA talked about the next steps and the changes in terms of planning processes if this was to happen.

I have borrowed this image from the RTPI’s own London Calling blog.  Quite an interesting site in itself, to keep an eye on for changes and challenges about development and related social issues in London.

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This story from Inhabitat i-zin describes an urban initiative for “2,012 Public Growing Spaces For London by Next Year With Capital Growth Scheme”.

http://m.inhabitat.com/capital-growth-scheme-creates-2012-public-gardens-by-2012-for-london/

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London’s image has been tainted this week by evenings of rioting and looting in parts of the city. There were other copy cat outbreaks in Manchester, and other cities but focusing on London, these areas did not all have affluent businesses or large name high street stores. Naturally, the analysis of the demonstrations turned to the eighties when parts of the country, such as Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham and London were hit for 6 weeks by unrest, but the roots of those movements are well understood whereas the disturbances here seem less clearly motivated and more opportunistic than idealistic. In any case the whole event, which has cooled off, seemed to be self-harming rather than a cry for change since right now what we need is to build new opportunities and the right environment for a succesful future. Most Brits are of course trying to do that. I’d say that anyone coming to London or any other UK venue for the Olympics should not be put off by what the have seen, and I’m going to try to create some new catergories in the run up to the games to give some advice and ideas about where to go, how to get there etc. and what to see.

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Here is the chance to enter an Olympics prize draw, to spend the day with the ‘Team GB’ athletes representing UK: PRIZE DRAW. The prize includes your travel (within UK) and two nights in a five star hotel for up to five people. Visa are the ‘presenting’ sponsors of the UK’s Olympic & Paralympic teams, and they are also offering a £150 Visa pre-paid card for each person.

The promo video of Team GB inviting you to spar with them is brilliant! I think it’s a chance to see them close up training but they’re also saying you can train with them too, so it could be an active day out. I reckon it could be amazing for a group of friends who do sports together, although the advert does say it does not matter who you pick to come along with you.

Copyright Hugh O’Malley

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This red scaffolding to the left of centre is in fact the base of the metal Tower, which will ‘adorn’ the Olympic park in London’s east end. It is to be called the Obital and will function as a viewing platform. Next to it is a lower and more sweeping structure, this building is the aquatics centre (designed by Zaha Hadid).

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A BBC report on the progress of the Olympic venue developments, featuring an interview with the ever lovely Seb Coe, brings home a sensation of how close the Games are getting. Watching another video demo of the slalom water race course on the river lee gives a feel for the thrill of the action…now if only I could have a go on that kayak!

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12th may

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I was genuinely surprised at the latest olympic construction design to be unveiled for the London 2012 park. There is a fair buzz around it due to its large size and unorthodox shape. Standing at around 400 feet it dwarfs the stadium and offers a unique view from within the games area. But it’s the twirling red spiral that’s caught people’s eyes with 1.4K tons of steel donated by Lakshmi Mittal and crafted by Cecil Balmond and Anish Kapoor.

Here is an official video to get us excited about the so entitled ArcelorMittal Orbit. Interesting to see mayor Boris’ take on it as both a “vertical invitation” to the games & an attraction for the post games legacy.

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Local daily paper, The Evening Standard, has taken to covering the Olympic development in practically every issue, not surprising given the size and costs of the venture. There are also weighty expectations on the project to deliver benefits of “regeneration” to this part of town, which has some of the lowest socio-economic indices in the UK and suffered WWII bombings.

Yesterday’s article on on the Fish Island and Hackney Wick areas which border the Olympic park describes the ‘other side’ to this story – the existing wealth and culture of the localities. It describes the art community and existing architectural legacy which can be built on and enhanced with by the Olympic project.

The question is what future for the olympic fringes and this article suggests they should look to other examples of thriving artists quarters such as Shoreditch. The area sits between Victoria Park and the Olympic Village – see the maps in the Tower Hamlets Masterplan document

This particular part of the east end contains many historic buildings from past times when the area was the heart of industrial development, such as the Bryant & May Match factory pictured above, with the Docklands Financial District in the background. The factory was famous for the invention of the safety match and the first working girls strike, which Annie Besant helped promote, and is now converted into flats. The area was mainly served by canals, which are still green and beautiful as you can see in the photos in this blog, but not used for transport so much anymore.

Here are some photos of the area, taken late last year

Looking north up the canal running east of Hackney Wick

Fish Island Area August 2009

Canal around Fish Island and Hackney Wick August 2009

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