London aquatic center Case study

London aquatic center Case study

1. ROHAN JOSHI SAMRUDDHI SHARMA VINAY KATARIYA
AQUATIC CENTRE
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

2. ABOUT THE ARCHITECT
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1
3
7
13
37
35
TABLE OF CONTENTS

3. ABOUT THE ARCHITECT
Zaha Hadid, (born October -1950 ,31
died March 31,2016 ) was an Iraqi-born
British architect known for her radical
deconstructivist designs and her ground
breaking achievements as a woman in
the field of architecture.

Hadid began her studies at the American
University in Beirut, Lebanon, receiving a
bachelor's degree in mathematics. In 1972
she traveled to London to study at the
Architectural Association, a major center
of progressive architectural thought during
the 1970s. There she met the architects
Elia Zenghelis and Rem Koolhaas, with
whom she would collaborate as a partner
at the Office of Metropolitan Architecture.
In 1983 Hadid gained international
recognition with her competition-winning
entry for The Peak, a leisure and
recreational center in Hong Kong.
This design, a "horizontal skyscraper"
that moved at a dynamic diagonal down
the hillside site, established her aesthetic
characterized by a sense of fragmentation,
instability and movement. This fragmented
style led her to be grouped with architects
known as "deconstructivism,"
Hadid's design for The Peak was never
realized, nor were most of her other radical
designs in the 1980 s and early 90s.
Hadid began to be known as a "paper
architect, "meaning her designs were too
avant-garde to move beyond the sketch
phase and actually be built. And this
impression of her was heightened when
her beautifully rendered designs- often
in the form of exquisitely detailed colored
paintings were exhibited as works of art in
major museums
Hadid's first major built project was the Vitra Fire
Station (93-1989) in Weil am Rhein, Germany.
Composed of a series of sharply, angled planes,
the structure resembles a bird in flight. But Hadid
solidified her reputation as an architect of built
works in 2000 , when work began on her design
for a new Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for
Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The 85,000 square foot center, which opened in
2003, was the first American museum designed
by a woman. Shen proceeded to design countless
other buildings and receive many awards,
including being the first woman to be awarded
the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004
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4. INTRODUCTION
The centre was designed by Pritzker Prize-
winning architect Zaha Hadid in 2004
before London won the bid for the 2012
Summer Olympics. It was built alongside
the Water Polo Arena and opposite the
Olympic Stadium on the opposite bank of
the Waterworks River.
The site is 45 metres (148 feet) high, 160
metres (520 feet) long, and 80 metres
(260 feet) wide. The wave-like roof is
stated to be 11,200 square feet (1,040
m2), a reduction from the previously
stated 35,000 square feet (3,300 m2).
The design was inspired by the Dollan
Aqua Centre in East Kilbride, Scotland.
The complex has a -50m competition
pool, a -25m competition diving pool and
a -50m warm-up pool. The -50m pool is
3 metres deep, like the one in the Beijing
National Aquatics Center, in order to be
fast. Its floor can be moved to reduce its
depth. There are also moveable booms
that allow its size to be changed.
The diving pool has platform boards at
heights of 3 m, 5 m, 7.5 m, and 10 m and
three 3m springboards. For the television
coverage of the Olympics, the pools were
also equipped with innovative cameras in
order to present the action from multiple
angles.
Because the centre was designed
before the Olympic bid was completed,
the spectator wings were not part of the
original design. They were later added to
fit the estimated audience.
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5. LOCATION / SITE SITE CONSTRAINTS
The Aquatics Centre is within the Olympic
Park Masterplan. Positioned on the south
eastern edge of the Olympic Park with
direct proximity to Stratford, It is planned
on an orthogonal axis that is perpendicular
to the Stratford City Bridge. All three pools
are aligned on this axis.
The training pool is located under the
bridge with the competition and diving
pools located within the large pool hall
enclosed by the roof. The overall strategy
is to frame the base of the pool hall as
a podium connected to the Stratford City
Bridge.
The podium emerges from the bridge to
the cascade around the pool hall to the
lower level of the canal. A new pedestrian
access to the Olympic Park via the east-
west bridge (called the Stratford City
Bridge) passes directly over the Centre
as a primary gateway to the Park.
Several smaller pedestrian bridges will
also connect the site to the Olympic Park
over the existing canal.
The London Aquatics Center is site on
one of the most constrained sites on
the Olympic Park. The building sits in
between railway lines to the east and the
Waterworks River to the west.
The temporary stands are actually
cantilevered over the railway and River
in some areas. The other major site
constraints are the two tunnels under
the Aquatics Center. The tunnels contain
high voltage electrical cables. They do
not align with the Aquatic Center in any
way, but they have a significant effect on
the building substructure.
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FACTS:
:Project Info
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
Location: Westminster, London, UK
2011-2005 :Project Year
Area in Sq.m : 15950
Client: Olympic Delivery Authority
Main Contractor: Balfour Beatty
Structural Engineers: Ove Arup &
Partners
Services Engineers: Ove Arup &
Partners
Photographs: Hufton+Crow, Helene

6. CHAPTER I
CONCEPT & APPROACH
The London Aquatics Center form may
appear complex and confusing but at its
core, it is a simple concept brought to
fruition through clear architectural moves
Zaha Hadid's desire to respond to the fluid
movement of water heavily influenced the
form of the roof.
Through tons of forms, the roof took on
an undulating wave like structure. The
concept of them continued to drive design
decisions throughout the design process
The roof structure, day-lighting ventilation
and construction process all became
supports for the overbearing concept of
the roof The existing site also influenced
and drove design decisions.
During the construction process, many
needs had to be met to counteract the soil
content possible flooding from the nearby
river, and the existing electric and pipe
lines.
7 8

7. The curved form of the roof steals the
eyes of any pedestrian approaching the
building. The flat podium, contrasting with
the roof form, not only supports the pool
hall structurally, but also pragmatically.
The constant working relationship with the
site, creates a clear image of why Zaha
chose to emphasize the connection to
the existing bridge. Raising the pool hall
on a podium, and connecting the building
to the public circulation entering and
exiting the site The flat podium appears
to only support the roof, but underneath is
program filled space dedicated to public
and private space.
Ground floor Plan
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8. The added 15,000 seats along the east
and west sides of the building were built
almost entirely of recyclable material,
knowing that they would be only used for
the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
These seats were not forgotten in the
design of the Center's structure, however.
• The seating structure wrapped
around the roof of the Aquatic Center,
creating a tighter air barrier.
• Fabric was fitted along the ceiling
timber so as to not damage the material.
This also kept movement of the stands to
a minimum.
• The stands were built following the
curvature of the roof. The design of the
joint between the structures limited the
disconnect between the two and created
an almost seamless relation
The stadium was designed in such a way
that it could be used during the Olympics
as a stadium, and after that as a stadium
as well as a “legacy”.
The Olympic mode refers to the style the
building donned during the 2012 London
Olympics, with the two "wings" of seating
along the edges.
A large design aspect of the London
Aquatic Center was what to do with
the building once the Olympics ended.
London wanted to f keep the structure
and use it as a community center, which
the city was lacking. Zaha Hadid and her
architects' solution was to have 15,000
temporary seats that would attach to the
roof.
The Legacy mode refers to the style the
building currently is in, with glazing along
the edges, where the temporary stands
once had been
The 260 foot long and 140 feet high, these
stands are one of the largest stadium
seating for an Olympic venue. The largest
single lift of the entire job was lifting the
260 foot long truss that was to hold the
entire stands up, meaning there would
be no need for columns or other supports
that would block views
11
Cross section through spectator seating
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9. CHAPTER II
STRUCTURAL DESIGN
Construction on the London Aquatics
Center officially began in June of 2009.
The building was completed in Olympic
Mode in 2011 with spectator seating
for upwards of 15,000 people. After the
Olympic games in 2012 the deconstruction
of the additional spectator seating began.
The building was converted to its legacy
mode with a capacity of 2,500 in 2013
The construction process was an arduous
task with precision and accuracy being
key to each stage of construction. The
complex form of the building required
specialized construction. From the careful
structural planning in the wave le roof
to the technical planning in the olympic
pools.
The construction had to be carefully
orchestrated in order to meet the schedule
and be finished for the Olympics As well as
its outcome and complexity of its structure
the attention to detail in every aspect of
this building makes it an architectural
phenomenon.
CONSTRUCTION
PROCESS
Construction process - Timeline
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10. Foundation construction began after the
remediation process was completed and
the electrical tunnels were completed. The
method of using cast in place piles as a
foundation type was chosen because the
method helped to stabilize the soil after
the remediation.
Construction on the supports for the roof
structure began at the same time. This
ensured the the ground was ready when
the roof construction needed to begin.
Due to the amount of piles needed roof
construction had to begin before all of the
piles were put in.
Foundation of the building consists
approximately 1000 cast in place concrete
piles.
Concrete piles are formed by coring a
hole into the ground to the desired height
and filling it slowly with concrete
Foundation Details - Schematic
15 16

11. Connections The bracing for the roof
creates a grid across the roof precision
and planning were key.
The roof was constructed in stages. First
supports were built at the end point of
where a beam would land. Then cranes
lifter the pre fabricated beams up to their
attachment point and the beam was
attached. After all the beams for that
section were attached Toilets were added
for support. Support while building Extra
ties were added between the concrete
roof supports during construction
Foundations plates had to be put on the
supports of the cranes to ensure that they
wouldn't sink into the ground with each
beam lift. The roof structure was fully built
before work on the interior spaces could
begin due to the supports needed for
construction. After the roof structure was
built the pool construction began.
There are several layers created in the top
of the roof. Sheeting and waterproofing
were put down over the steel supports.
Mechanical system was placed into the
space. Spaces were added before the
final aluminum sheeting was added. The
process of rolling out the sheeting for the
roof only took a team of 25. It took only a
month to cover the roof fully with the last
aluminum finish.
The connection between the roof and the
support columns are a sliding joint. Joints
like these are commonly found in bridges.
The Joint can slide up to two feet. This
is to allow for expansion and contraction
that occurs in the steel roof structure due
to temperature changes
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12. One of the key challenges of the project
was developing the structure for the
spectacular 118400 ft waveform roof,
which is supported on only two concrete
cores to the north and along a 70 ft length
of wall to the south.
The architect's roof geometry was inspired
by the fluid geometry of water in motion,
with the lower surface bellying between
the diving and competition pools to help
describe two different zones within the
one building volume.
The two sides of the roof sweep upwards,
emphasizing the wave form and also
allowing the pool hall in Legacy mode to
be flooded with natural light.
The key driver to the arching form of
the two sides, however, was the need
to provide column-free sightlines to all
17,500 spectators to the farside lane of
the competition pool in Games mode.
STRUCTURAL
SYSTEMS
19 20

13. STEEL SYSTEMS
The structural systems consists of one
diaphragm with three total connections.
The overall plan form of the roof consists
of a rounded diamond shape, being much
wider at mid-span.
The primary structure was fabricated
entirely of straight H-sections fabricated
from plate with flanges oriented vertically
and equal width sections for chords and
braces to facilitate ease of fabrication at
joints. Plate orders were used on some
trusses and narrowed to acute angles
at their ends. The gross curvature of the
primary structure was formed by faceting
the truss chords at node positions
The 118,400 ft structure spans a column
free area 525 ft long and up to 295 ft
wide. It is supported on bearings on
two concrete cores 180 ft apart near its
northam end and on a concrete wall at its
southern end.
The roof contains about 3,200 tons of
structural steel, of which 2.000 tons are
fabricated plate girders with the structural
connections totalling around 600 tons
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14. The roof structure comprises a series of
long span trusses spanning the length
of the main pool hall from a transverse
truss mounted on the southern retaining
wall bearings to another transverse truss
spanning between the northern concrete
cores.
The center fan trusses carry load in truss action, spanning between the north and south transverse trusses which carry the load down to the supporting bearings on the concrete structure below. Due to the roof geometry, arches are formed in the wing areas to the west and east of the central area.
Under uniform loading occurs in the central
fan the two opposite inclined trusses.
The structure of arches in the wing areas
the roof can be deduced balance each
other, forming to a dome form. In a dome
compression hoop structure, at the angle
around the roof perimeter.
A tension force arises from the change in geometry 34 to the normal that separates
compression and tensile forces. In the London of the compression hoop Aquatics Center, the angle in plan at the kinks which oCcur at the wing tips, and this is resisted by a tension of the roof is 30. Therefore creating a compression hoop, instead of a tension tie across the center and ring if the angle was greater a resulting tension force than 34.
23 24

15. In order to ensure the roof behaved as
described above and minimise the effects
on the substructure, the northern end of
the roof is supported on fixed spherical
bearings to act as true 'pins.
The southern end is supported on three
sliding spherical bearings along the top of
the southern wall the outer with bearings
sliding in both principle axes and the
central bearing only allowed to slide along
the central axis of the building. This was in
order to avoid the support wall attracting
thrust to simplify the substructure
construction and to permit the roof to
expand under temperature effects.
The long spanning steel members are
supporting and transferring the bulk of
the load. Solving for reactions, drawing
shear-force diagrams, and a bending
moment diagram depict how the form and
structure of the long spanning beams was
developed.
Relationship between the
roof and ground
25 26

16. PODIUM AND ROOF DETAILS
27 28

17. CONCRETE SYSTEMS
The plaza bridge structure is designed as
a three span continuous portalised frame
and is approximately 260 ft long and 165
ft wide in plan with a central span of 100 ft
crossing the 165 ft training pool.
The remaining building is separated from
this highway structure as are the 165 ft
training pool tank and adjoining elements
which are constructed within the bridge
supports, but not attached, to allow the
building to be 'peeled' away from the
bridge without affecting the bridge's
performance in any way
The basement was designed as a single conjoined structure without moving joints. Controlled casting sequences and concrete mixes, requiring careful specification along with appropriate concrete and reinforcement design, were required to achieve the 150 m long by 45 m wide basement arrangement.
To ensure that the reinforcement could be bent and placed they developed a geometric definition software that extracted the three dimensional position of all bars at each section.
Then generated the best fit single plane
radius bar The total family of diving
boards required more than 300 unique link
sections all with varying geometry using
standard fit bars Self compacting concrete
was used for all the diving boards.
The superstructure concrete mixes
contained GGBS cement, while the
substituted PFA Which exceeds the
replacement contents set by the Olympic
Delivery Authority (ODA)
Pile Foundation Cap
29 30

18. MATERIALS USED
The high humidity in the pool hall called
for materials that would not warp or swell
which meant that any wood used would
have to come from a humid climate and
any other materials could not be extremely
porous. Four major materials were used
in and around the building Concrete,
glass, wood, and tile were the most logical
choices.
Concrete is noticable throughout the
entire complex The main podium the
building sits upon is a large span of
continuous pour concrete. The bridge of
the London Aquatic Center utilizes as its
main entrance is also completely concrete.
Along with these, the three main legs the
roof sits on are concrete shear walls.
The center›s contractor chose to use
ground granulated blast furnace slag
(GGBS) cement. This solution is a by
product from the steel industry and
contributes to lower embodied carbon
concrete.
Glass was used throughout in order to allow plenty of natural light into the spaces, even ones that were completely underground like the training pool. A total of 628 panes of glass are used on the
exterior, all of which were added after the olympic events ended. The glass panels on the exterior of the building are printed with with a dot matrix pattern to reduce daylight glare on the water, but still allow plenty of light in
31 32

19. The ceiling is made up of more than
35,000 Red Louro timber panels. The
Brazilian hardwood are laid parallel to the
roof's edge, which helps the backstroke
swimmers to follow a straight line. This
wood was used because it comes from
a humid climate and would not warp
Each plank of wood is unique and
has its own serial number. This is
because no two pieces are exactly alike
The pieces of wood on the ceiling also
extend outside the building to create
the solid sections of the facades. This
creates a consistent set of materials and
colors throughout the entire building.
Concrete and glass finishes used on
the exterior as well as the interior of the
building create a cohesive and simple
material palette and do not distract from
the events.
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20. CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION :
Overall, the structure is sensual in its
form with a generosity of space. It is
considered as one of the most iconic
buildings in the recent times due to its
pure and powerful form. The center can
people. One of the 17500 host more than
challenges faced by designers in building
such a structure, is its volume. The
building is planned in a way that even
people, it doesn’t feel 17500 if it hosts
claustrophobic, and when the stadium
is empty, it especially doesn’t feel like a
huge hollow vessel. This is the result of
the very organic roof
.and planning
The roof is one of the highlights in
the structure. It not only spans a
large length, but a large width too. It
undulates to differentiate the volumes
of the competition and diving pools, and
extends beyond the pool hall envelope
to cover the external areas of the podium
and entrance on the bridge. Double-
curvature geometry has been used to
create a structure of parabolic arches
that define its form. The result is an
.efficient, elegant, and buildable structure The building’s sustainability credentials
are inherent and exemplary. It achieved a
BREEAM Innovation Credit for its unusual
use of concrete mixes. Also, the design
team minimized energy efficiencies including
incorporating very high levels of insulation,
well-sealed envelope, low-velocity ventilation
systems with highly efficient heat recovery
and water-based heating systems with
variable speed pumps. In addition, the main
pool is naturally lit. Mechanical systems have
adaptable controls for maximum efficiency in
use and the building is connected to the district
heating system. Potable water demands were
by reusing backwash %40 reduced by over
in WCs and urinals, low-flow showers and
savings as well. Rainwater %35 basins deliver
harvesting provides irrigation for the green
Concluding, London Aquatic Centre has
an eccentric building profile and structural
details that make the structure look very
effortless and effective. While achieving
this, the sustainability factor has also been
.implemented very well
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21. 37 38
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://architizer.com/projects/london-aquatics-centre
summer-olympics-zaha-hadid-architects-2012-london-aquatics-centre-for/161116/https://www.archdaily.com
london-aquatics-centre-designed-by-zaha-hadid-for-london-olympics-monika-tymanowska.html?product=poster-2/https://fineartamerica.com/featured
London-Aquatics-Centre/22854781/https://www.behance.net/gallery
/2009-06-26-aquatics-roof-reaches-halfway-point-2012-https://www.newcivilengineer.com/archive/london
11m-https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/olympic-aquatics-centre-construction-cost-rises-by
/763274.https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/cape-town-international-aquatic-centre-engineering-help-needed
/https://archidialog.com/tag/aquatics-centre-roof
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FywlNJBpCWU
MODEL-London-Aquatic-Centre/23-https://cargocollective.com/YT
/https://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/london-aquatics-centre
https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/CIBSE_Case_Study_London_Olympic_Aquatics_Centre#The_Roof