Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, London

Queen Elizabeth Park, London opened to the public, following the London Olympics in 2012 on 5th April 2014. The park was closed for 18 months following the London 2012 Olympics to allow for significant modifications to enable it to better function as a park. The wide pedestrian highways of the former Olympic venue were narrowed to footpaths of a more human scale, planting beds were increased in width and thousands of additional trees were planted.

The Olympic Park was originally master planned by Hargreaves Associates and LDA Design; it is the same size as Hyde Par and Kensington Gardens combined. One of the major consideration when designing this park was to minimise the importation of resources and maximise the use of on site material. This was achieved by using site derived sub soil to generate a growing medium for plants and demolition concrete which was crushed and used in gabions and sub base. Enhancing biodiversity was also an important consideration when designing the park. Significant habitats were retained and numerous habitats were created.

James Corner of Field Operations was responsible for the redesign of the south section of the park from Olympic venue to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. One of the desired outcomes of converting the Olympic venue’s infrastructure into a public park was to provide opportunity for the inhabitants of London to peruse a more healthy life style. This has been achieved by providing, amongst other things, a public aquatics centre (designed by Zaha Hadid), cycle routes, pedestrian routes and opportunity for outdoor activity. There are a number of children’s playgrounds, the Tumbling Bay Playground was covered in a previous post.

The images below attempt to capture the spirit and feel of the public realm.