London 2012 OlympicsArchDaily Exclusive Coverage

Designer: Morag Myerscough of Studio Myerscough Customized ice cream bicycle: Luke Morgan Furniture: Morag Myerscough and Luke Morgan Location: Waller Way, Greenwich, London Se10 8JA, UK Project Year: 2012 Project Area: 140 sqm Client: Cathedral Group

Commissioned by the Greater London Authority as part of the Wonder series to celebrate the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, BLOOM, designed and developed by Alisa Andrasek and Jose Sanchez from The Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL, is a crowd sourced garden. Designed in neon pink, which is the official Olympics color, BLOOM is conceptualised as an urban toy, a distributed social game and collective “gardening” experience that seeks the engagement of people in order to construct fuzzy BLOOM formations. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architectural firm Populous specialises in monumental sporting and entertainment structures and was responsible for the Olympic Stadium at the London 2012 Games. The structure has changed the face of East London and is the focal point of the world’s biggest sporting activity until 13 August. We meet Rod Sheard, the architect behind the build at Populous’ studio to discuss how they approached the project with legacy and sustainability in mind, and why sport is one of the few tools left that still brings people together.

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As the world turns its eyes to London in 2012, Design Stories examines the architecture and engineering behind the 2012 sporting venues. It provides a unique Olympic experience – a place where people can explore and view drawings, images, videos and amazingly detailed models of London’s key new sporting venues.

In our final segment of Thinking Past Day 17 – our series examining the larger implications of hosting the Olympic Games – we conclude with ideas for the future host cities that involve dividing the Games across 7 permanent sites, complete with reusable architecture and a focus on sustainability at the urban level.

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With a quarter million LEGO bricks and 300 hours of finger intensive labor, Warren Elsmore and his wife constructed a mini replica of the 2012 Olympic Park in London. As Gizmodo reports, the model weighs about 80kg and would cost around $300,000 to build for scratch!

Dover Street Market has commissioned Zaha Hadid to design this site-specific installation to showcase in their London store during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The concept behind “Aqua” references the formal language of Hadid’s London Aquatics Centre.

The London 2012 Olympics start today, and once again architecture is on the spotlight. With a big focus on reusable and adaptable structures, the lineup includes renowned architecture firms such as Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Hopkins Architects, Populous and Zaha Hadid Architects.

Welcome back and congratulations for having made it to the final installation of the Olympic City Guide.

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This post features time lapses of the construction of various venues that will be hosting the 2012 London Olympics. With the opening ceremony Friday, July 27, these construction time lapses give you an inside look to all of the effort put into the games. If you get a chance to watch the games, you will now have a new found appreciation for the amount of work it takes to hold a major event such as this. More videos after the break.

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Is it the perfect blend of sculpture and engineering, or it is a twisted form of nonsense? Opinions are quite varied on the subject of Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond’s observation tower, ArcelorMittal Orbit, which will serve as a permanent reminder of London’s hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games. The red steel structure will rise close to 400 feet – taller than New York’s Statue of Liberty and London’s Big Ben – to be Britain’s largest piece of public art. Criticized for undertaking such a massively expensive project during the country’s recession, London Mayor Boris Johnson has claimed that the Orbit will not only enhance visitors’ experiences at the Olympic Games but will also be “the right thing for the Stratford site” beyond the summer time, calling on its potential to become ”the perfect iconic cultural legacy”.

Olympic Park Legacy Company has announced the winners of two competitions that will transform the north park and south plaza at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. New York-based James Corner Field Operations’ proposal for a 50 acre urban landscape consisting of a tree-lined promenade connecting flexible event and cultural spaces was selected as the winning entry for the south plaza.

New York based design firm, MANIFESTO, shared with Arch Daily the INFORSTRUCTURE which is the Stratford Information kiosk for the 2012 London Olympics is designed with an aim to provide the public with free and instant access to important information.