The London Aquatics Centre is an indoor facility with two 50 metre swimming pools and a 25 metre diving pool, which will be one of the main venues of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid, the centre is located in the Olympic Park at Stratford in East London. Its distinctive architecture and curved roof will be the first venue visitors see upon entering the Olympic Park, and is close to the Olympic Stadium.

The centre will be used for the Olympic event of swimming, diving, synchronised swimming and water polo final. During the Games it will have a capacity of 17,500, which will be reduced to 2,500 after the Games. It is expected that the centre will leave a legacy of replacing the pools at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in South London as the UK’s leading facility for aquatic sports.

London 2012 Organising Chairman Sebastian Coe said: “The Aquatics Centre is going to be a spectacular venue for the Games in 2012 and its iconic roof will be a fantastic addition to the east London skyline. At Games-time, I personally hope it will be the scene of further success for Team GB, but just as importantly I look forward to London at last having a state of the art aquatics facility for elite and community use for decades to come. Progress has been impressive, but the long term significance of this venue is something really quite special.”

This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 6:49 am and is filed under sport building. Tags: Aquatic center, London 2012 Summer Olympics, London Olympic Aquatic Center, Pritzker Prize, Zaha Hadid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.