Populous ABS Fun Run 2010 Group

On the morning of the Sunday July 11th, 10 hours before Soccer City played host to the World Cup Final, another significant, if slightly less viewed sporting event was taking place. The annual ABS 6km fun run was underway with, a sea of 65 red shirts flowing down the narrow cobbled streets of Dicken’s London, past St Paul’s Cathedral, over the Millenium towards the Tate Modern finishing line.

The First three Populous staff past the post were Charlie Fordham (who was also overall runner-up in 21m27s), Adam Doak (21m55s), and Ben Vickery (29m50s). Paul Goodall, Oonagh Crotty, Myself, Sabah Hashiq and Caroline Mills were in the chasing pack, and not too far behind. After a banana and satsuma to replenish ourselves, Charlie led the team to a riverside pub where a well earned beverage was enjoyed.

ABS Fun Run 2010 Participants

To see the 2010 results, please click here.

The Architects Benevolent Society is a charity that cares for architects, assistants, technologists and landscape architects and their dependants who have experienced illness, accident, bereavement or other personal misfortune such as redundancy. For more information, please check the website.

Mark Waller

© Brian Griffin - National Portrait Gallery/BT Road to 2012 Project

PAUL WESTBURY b.1969, TONY AIKENHEAD b.1953 and ROD SHEARD b.1951
By Brian Griffin
18 January 2010, Olympic Stadium, London
 © Brian Griffin – National Portrait Gallery/BT Road to 2012 Project

The 30 portraits represent the first from a total of 100 commissions which will be displayed at the Gallery each summer over the next three years and form part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.  The portraits include well-known athletes (such as Jessica Ennis and Tom Daly), along with key figures behind the bid for the Games (such as Sir Steve Redgrave and Tessa Jowell) and members of the various design and construction teams working on the Olympic Park – including Paul Westbury (Buro Happold), Tony Aikenhead (Sir Robert McAlpine) and Rod Sheard (Populous) from the Olympic Stadium project.

The portraits were taken by Brian Griffin, an internationally recognised photographer, who has previously captured the construction of the high-speed rail link to St Pancras, and Bettina von Zwehl, and are on display until 26 September 2010 in the Studio Gallery.

The sports park, which includes a 30,000 seat stadium, an 8,000 seat arena, a 1,500 seat natatorium and a multi-use training hall, is part of an ambitious plan by the Datong Mayor to regenerate the historic old city and cretea a new city centre with development including a city hall, museum, convention centre as well as the sports buildings.

The Datong project will be the second major sports park in China designed by Populous (second to the Nanjing Sports Park, completed in 2005). The inspiration for the unique design in Datong has come from the surrounding Yungang Grottoes or Cloud Ridge Caves, a collection of shallow caves just out of Datong, which are symbolic of the rich cultural heritage of Datong, which has evolved over several thousand years. The visitor approach and entry to the stadium is like entering the nearby caves, with the sandstone bases clad in a series of irregular titanium shells.

Yael Reisner commenced with introducing the concept of beauty existing in the content as opposed to the container, thus rephrasing the idea of functionality of space. Will Alsop opposed to the idea, suggesting that space can equally be experienced outside its use. Traditionally beauty and functionality coexist notwithstanding that this is not always the case, taking as an example the early modernist movement where functionality was absent in a fundamentally innovative attempt of redefining the aesthetics of space.

Which lead the forum to explore the next concept of breakthrough innovation and how it may not be easily perceived as beautiful due to the lack of reference that can be traced back into our past memories. As Hernan Diaz Alonso eloquently puts it, innovation is disturbing. Its unfamiliar and surprising nature impacts on harmony, to use the alternative term used by  Gaetano Pesce to define beauty, and throws it off balance. Harmony in that sense appears to be a product of collective memory and experience through time and in this theory there is no space for innovation.

So could it be that the element that architecture seeks to address and define as beauty is in fact harmony? What happens when our experience grows to include a previously shocking innovative space which has now over time become familiar? How about the examples of the Eiffel tower, “Centre Georges Pompidou” or “Falling Waters” that were originally viewed with distraught yet grew on their audience and are now vastly accepted as beautiful and harmonious? And do they not each perfectly fit to their environment, thus fulfilling yet another definition of beautiful in architectural terms?

Will Alsop takes the concept of harmony one step further by adding the element of warmth and cosiness, which contribute to making space special. Peter Cook on the other hand suggests that beauty coincides with particularity and uniqueness, which could in fact extend to include the surprising, as it is inherently unique as much as potentially disturbingly unfamiliar.

As expected, there was no firm conclusion during this debate as there have always been a lot of different approaches on the subject none of which is necessarily more logical than others as beauty is one of the most subjective values. The discussion was further analysed in a more social context as the evening progressed over a glass of wine as was the subject of beauty and the hopeful expectation that the book, signed copies of which were being sold, will reveal more paths for the readers’ imagination to tread on while identifying with one or the other predominant theories or indeed creating their own.

“Architecture and Beauty, Conversations with Architects about a Troubled Relationship” is now available in bookstores worldwide including Amazon online.

The subject of architecture and beauty will be further discussed in the forthcoming related events:

“Architecture and Beauty, A troubled Relationship”: symposium held at Sci-Arc, (Southern California School of Architecture), Los Angeles in September 2010.

“The Troubled Relationship between Architecture and Appearance in the last 80 years”: an 8-week seminar which will be held during the Autumn term 2010 at the Architectural Association in London.

For more details please visit the author’s official website at http://yaelreisner.com/ nearer the time.

Keep up to date with upcoming events at the Royal Academy of Arts at http://www.royalaca...org.uk/architecture/

The architecture department of the university of Westminster is proudly presenting the work of its students in the current end of year 2010 show. Populous staff, including former UoW students, were present at the opening evening and witnessed the remarkable talent exhibited.

The work overall demonstrates a very high level of skill and creativity. Some students, with the guidance of their studio tutors, explored new forms, enabled by the use of the latest 3d-modelling and rendering software and advanced media tools to an impressive standard.

The social mingling with the various generations of the architectural scene over drinks -always a pleasure to see those familiar faces- and the after-show party hosted at the podium bar, also proved a big success. After all this effort put into the work, this celebration downtime was just as well endorsed as deserved!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Richard Phillips, Managing Director of Silverstone Circuits Ltd, praised the design team Populous and construction team Buckingham Group Ltd, in just 6 months the final layout went from the CAD system to completion and receiving an FIA Category 1 license.

HRH Prince Andrew in his role as Special Representative to the UKTI was invited to open the new circuit. Silverstone is owned by the BRDC, British Racing Driver’s Club, presided over by Damon Hill OBE. In his role as President of the BRDC Damon gave a brief speech before inviting HRH Prince Andrew to become an honorary member of the BRDC.

Before the official opening of the circuit many names from the world of Motorsport, past and present, 2 wheel and 4 wheel, were called forward to help with the unveiling of the new Silverstone logo. Present to help, alongside Damon Hill and Prince Andrew, were: Sir Jackie Stewart, Martin Brundle, David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Christian Horner, Mike Gascoyne, Ron Haslam, Leon Haslam, and Jeremy McWilliams.

The official moment came when Mark Webber, David Coulthard, Damon Hill, Prince Andrew, Richard Phillips, Leon Haslam and Ron Haslam were called forward to witness the blessing of the circuit. The Bishop of Brixworth Rt Rev Frank White conducted a blessing with a prayer and marking the sign of the Cross on the circuit with his Crosier. The blessing was followed by a traditional ribbon cutting and the Motorsport tradition of spraying Champagne in conjunction with some pyrotechnics.

Upon the formalities being completed it was time to put the circuit to use with both bikes and cars. One of the cars was a 2 seater Grand Prix Masters car, with approximately 600Bhp, which Damon Hill used to ferry Prince Andrew around the circuit at high speed. The pair were quickly followed by the father and son duo of Ron and Leon Haslam on a pair of superbikes, then holding back at the end was David Coulthard in the Red Bull demonstration Formula 1 car. David Coulthard drew a somewhat traditional close to proceedings by completing several donuts in the Red Bull leaving thick circle of rubber on the barely 2 week old asphalt.

Photos courtesy of Silverstone Circuits Ltd.

If it did not sink this year, it would sink next year. If it did not sink next year, it would sink the year after that. After nearly fifty years service, Henley Royal Regatta, had decided they needed to retire the much loved Regatta Control Barge.

The reason for the existence of the control barge, is a bend in the river. Between Temple island and the finish line between the two pubs at Henley bridge, the river bank is straight enough for spectators to see up the length of the course. However, just before the finish line, the bank curves a little so that it is not possible to see all of the course from the finish line. The solution, is a floating platform moored a few meters from the river bank, affording views up the length of the course.

The control barge is an institution within the regatta. While the majority of the six and a half thousand members and their guests watch the races from grandstands or from deckchairs along the river bank, members unaccompanied by guests, may watch the races from the upper deck. Space is limited and it can get quite crowded for particularly important races. The race control and commentary is carried out from a dais on the up-river end of the upper deck. Members, must be careful not to block the view of either the commentary or control team, and will be politely told to sit-down if they do so. This is an unusual arrangement in comparison to modern rowing courses with their isolated commentary towers, but one that adds to the excitement and atmosphere of the event. Something the Regatta, were keen to continue with the new control barge. The lower deck, is solely for use by the fifty five Stewards of the Regatta and their guest. Reached from a small lawn reserved for use by the Regatta Stewards, the atmosphere is usually more sedate than on the upper deck. The lower and upper deck are accessed from the river bank, via plank bridges supported on timber piles driven into the river bed. The two bridges are a little distance from one another and a bowler hatted gentleman, will inspect badges to ensure correctly accredited people go upstairs.

One of the first images we saw, was a photograph of three figures walking through a misty field in front of a white skeletal structure, moored against a river bank. The barge is moored against the Oxford side of the river, when not in use. It is towed each year to the opposite river bank, where it is ‘dressed’ for the Regatta. It has also been used occasionally as a floating platform for the Henley music festival held later in the summer.

The Regatta had for some years been looking to replace the ageing control barge, looking at several options. In the end they decided that commissioning a new barge, rather than buying a standard pontoon and building a temporary stand, would best meet their need. Populous, were approached by the Regatta, to provide some inspiration and explore different options for the floating grandstand.

Following a site visit in early 2009, the Regatta Committee, came to the Populous offices in Putney, to talk about the barge. Talking about their experience of using the existing barge – its good points and its bad points and their aspirations for its replacement. The committee brought a series of photographs mounted on boards, taken on and around the barge, they captured much of what the committee described in that first meeting. These photographs, became a point of reference in future presentations. The barge was not particularly good at keeping out the rain. On the lower deck, it could be a bit like a ‘damp cave’ on particularly wet days. The barge also rocked a little in the wake of the passing umpires launches, which occasionally led to a mild feeling of sea sickness. Clearly, there was scope for improvement.

One item that the Regatta particularly wished to improve on, was the view of the course from the control dais located on the up-river end of the upper deck. Because of the need to overlook boats, marshalling to go to the start of the course, the view from the dais, down the course was over the heads of members watching races on the upper deck. One of the ideas to come out of this initial brainstorming session with the committee, was that the barge could be slightly curved, so that the dias has better view of the course, while still maintaining contact with the members. This led to the butterfly plan shape of the new barge. After two subsequent presentations, during the spring and early summer in Henley, three initial options were presented and then one worked up in detail. Shortly afterwards, the Regatta asked the design team – Architects, Populous and Engineers, Capita Bobrowski – to prepare a tender package, with the aim of having the new barge ready for the 2010 regatta.

Due to the constraint on time, it was important that the contractor who took on the project, would be able to work closely with the Regatta and the design team, over the next months to develop the detail of the basic structural and architectural tender scheme, before production started. Littlehampton Welding, are well known for delivering small and unusual projects along side bigger more traditional work. Good examples of their work, are the temporary sculptures, built each year for the Goodwood festival of speed, or permanent structures, such as the Future Systems, floating bridge, at Canary Wharf. Following the award of contract, several workshops were held over the winter in London and Littlehampton. The final design and production details were resolved and production could start.

Early on here had been talk of assembling the entire structure at Littlehampton’s works, then floating it up the Thames. In truth, this was never a serious option as there are locks, bridges and weirs on the upper reaches of the Thames, that such a large structure could never pass. In reality, the Barge came by road in two sections which were united on the Oxford bank on Fawley Meadows, it’s winter mooring place. The superstructure came as a flat pack and the whole thing was assembled sitting on timber baulks beside the river, in around ten days.

On the morning of the twelfth of May 2010, the superstructure was ready for lifting onto the river at 10:30am. Having missed my turn on the motorway and crawled back through the Reading rush hour traffic, my first glimpse of the control barge was from Henley bridge at 10 am. A single rabbit guarded the gate to Fawley Meadows. I drove down to the riverside, parking a little distance away from the huddle of low-loaders surrounding the two 200 ton mobile cranes, that had come up from Sussex, the night before. It became clear that a twin crane lift, such as this was a bit of an event among crane drivers, and their extended family and associated pets ( mostly Jack Russells) had come up for the day. It was fairly obvious that the lift was not going to be at 10:30 am as planned, as there was still a lot of last minute painting, and bolting-things-on, going on. I walked back into the town to get a coffee and a croissant.

Nero’s coffee machine was broken, so I went on a little further to Starbucks for a coffee and as they don’t do croissants, a muffin. When I returned the lifting straps and spreaders were being laid out on the grass and the cranes, already parked on lifting mats to distribute their weight onto the boggy soil, were taking position. Chatting to one of the low-loader drivers, he explained that each of the cranes, on-board computers would monitor the weight of the lift, adjusting extension of the boom arm and distance in plan of the load from the centre of the crane, to prevent overturning. The estimated, weight of the structure was 75 metric tons. (Once lifted, the cranes actually measured the structure at 65 metric tons). Around 11:30, the revised lift time Edward, from the Regatta came to see the lift. He was he confessed, quite nervous. If all went well today, the control barge should be ready for the Regatta. If there were a serious hitch, the Regatta would have to push the button on getting a temporary barge in place.

With the two cranes now in place. The straps were passed down through holes left in the superstructure’s upper deck, to lifting eyes on the deck of the pontoon and attached, the area cleared and the two cranes took the strain. There was little noise other than the voices of the two drivers talking over the radio. Jack Russells watched from truck cabs. After a few minutes the man from Littlehampton, walked over to the pontoon and gave it a tentative shove. The weight was on the straps and the barge, absolutely level, swung between the two cranes, moving back and forth half a foot or so. Once he had walked clear, the two cranes began slowly to lift then turn, swinging the barge out over the river, before lowering it gently onto the water. As the weight was taken by the buoyancy of the river, the cranes could have been used to push the barge further into the river if the six spud legs that stabilise the pontoon, were getting stuck in the river bed, but having reached its displacement depth of about 500mm, the barge could be easily pushed by hand along the riverbank, so the cranes were no longer needed. A flock of swans glided by and a curious mallard came to inspect the new arrival. Later in the day, the barge would be floated across the Thames, to its place alongside the temporary structures, taking shape on the Berkshire bank, for this year’s Regatta. I said my goodbye’s to Edward, put my steel toe capped boots and hard hat in the back of the Discovery, and headed back up to London.

Post by Brian Ditchburn

The week long workshop started with a detailed tour of the stadium. The students were given the brief of transforming the stadium with a future scenario of Arsenal moving to a new 100,000 seat stadium following years of domination in Europe. The current award-winning stadium could hence be given back to the community. Four groups of students developed the schemes. Charles Cooke got fellow sports architects Charlie Fordham, Tina Grone and Paul Shakespeare to support the students in their endeavours.

Firstly, the students had to overcome the respect for Megastructures in order to be able to pull down parts of the stadium. They developed the designs within a week. The first- and second-year students then presented the schemes to Peter Cook and Tim Reeves. This initiated a wider discussion of the impact of stadia on the urban realm, also addressing its socio-economic challenges.

Arsène’s ark: Three students who suggested presenting the stadium to the community created an anarchic city within the city. The heating for the pitch was used to heat greenhouses, part of the upper tier converted into a cinema as well as a big market space and urban park on the pitch. The exclusive boxes were turned into pitch-view studio apartments. The new connecting stairs and ramps between the levels will be articulated as towers which Peter commented upon enthusiastically: ‘If you draw a tower, make it tall.’ However, the project was also criticised for being an extraordinary marketing exercise.

Expo 2018 was another suggestion for future use. Different countries’ cultures could be superimposed in the form of individually designed pavilions. The project was not so much a design statement but a method statement. The group generated some heated discussions about culture: Is world expo culture to be of a higher value than football culture? Should the two not co-exist?

‘This is the most infectious scheme’ commented Tim Reeves on the ‘Party on the Pitch’. This striking superimposed design is really an overlay to use professional event planning terminology. During the summer break the stadium would be used for leisure activities. A BMX track makes use of the upper tier. A half-pipe for the skateboarders is provided. Also featuring bikes is a large cycling track using the full shape of the stadium. A sandy beach and roaring waterfall is provided for the locals having an ‘urban holiday’.

Even if this project appears to be just as fictional as all the other ones, it was the one most discussed in terms of feasibility and implementation. Arsenal’s John Olaleye and Samir Singh contributed valuable ideas. The temporary ‘fun’ project could use the stadium during the summer break, particularly every two years when the turf needs replacing. The idea could become an extension to the already held bi-annual charity matches.  This project would allow Arsenal to tie its fan base even closer to the club, symbolising the alternate use with a helium filled blimp floating above the stadium.

And who won? Which scheme was deemed best? There was not as much discussion as expected. The designers of the Eco-Stadium-Urban Farm were uncontested. The scheme stood out because it tied all the loose ends together into one great sustainable concept. The students combined the know-how expertise on a farm with sophisticated architecture. Peter Cook commented on the productions with ‘Hand on heart’ and also validated the discussion about the community, peanuts and architecture it stirred.

All in all it was refreshing to see people demounting – if only fictionally – the stadium. It is apparent that the young architects at the start of their careers do not understand themselves so much as designers with a strong aesthetic vision but are rather interested in providing concepts enabling new forms of expression. The communal approach was dominant in all projects and is very promising for the very people we design for: the sports embracing general public.

Peter Cook’s final comment was a validation of the entire design process: ‘All experience is experience.’

At this point we – the Architects of Populous – would like to thank the Arsenal in the Community initiative with John Olaleye and Samir Singh. Thanks also to Steve Bowkett from South Bank University and our very own Charles Cooke for setting this great workshop up with Populous. It has been utterly inspirational and we hope for more to follow!

Text by Tina Grone

A few of us popped down to the London School of Economics recently to hear a talk given by Professor David Goldblatt on the inescapable connections between global sport and global capitalism. He summed up his argument in an anecdote from when he was studying for his PHD at Cambridge explaining that his tutor was insistent that to get an understanding of global capital and its movement he should read the Financial Times from cover to cover each day. Having a busy work life balance he argued it was just as plausible to only read the sports pages. 

He then went on to dissect the recent African Cup of Nations in Angola and to beautifully explain this principle. Starting at the initial decision to award the games and ranging from construction of the multiple stadia, through to the precise location of the individual games, he showed the consistent influence and manipulation by ‘global capitalism’. The full podcast of the evenings talk can be listened to here, and is well worth the consideration.

“Look at the numbers. The United Nations has 192 members. Fifa, football’s world governing body, has 207. Half the people on the planet watched Zinédine Zidane implode during this summer’s World Cup final. About a billion people play the game on some kind of organised basis, often without head butting opponents in the chest. There are 25 million kilometres of white lines on the Earth’s football pitches, enough to circle it a thousand times. This is world domination on the scale of a Bond villain’s fantasy.”  The Independent – By Chris Maume

“One of Goldblatt’s major criticisms of mainstream history is that football is ignored by `serious’ historians. He points out that anyone writing Twentieth Century history is omitting a great social development by doing so. Historians are happy to discuss literature, theatre, and even film – so why not football? Goldblatt argues that with TV viewing figures in the billions (estimates vary, but up to a third of the planet were watching) can events like the World Cup continue to be ignored by historians?” Amazon Review – By Jim-San