Project/Project

Broadcast media vs. Architecture at the 2012 Olympic Games

a conversation started by harsha royyuru at the syracuse university school of architecture in london, fall 2012

The Olympic Park is the most elaborately constructed and successfully concealed theatrical set

in the world. The complex of 2.5 square kilometers is purpose-built for the projection of a

choreographed performance for a duration of 28 days. But unlike the theatrical set piece, it is

never burned. the set never comes down, the stage is rarely reset. The efficiency and lightness

usually entailed in theatrical production does not come across in Olympic construction simply

because the organizers never wish for audience to conceptualize the stage in such a way.

the olympic committee constructed a series of permanent set pieces for a four-week performance.

This architectural project conceptualizes the event as viewed through the eyes of the global

audience, through the eyes of the person around the world watching it on television. To them, the

Olympic Park is a backdrop, a piece of scenery upon which the Olympic events are acted. 700 mil-

lion people around the world viewed the Olympics in this way.

With this in mind, the project is a reconstruction of the Olympic Event as seen on television. It

is precisely (no more, no less) than is needed to recreate or re-visualize the event as it was

broadcast. It takes the existing park and does away with what is unnecessary or superfluous in

the creation and subsequent maintenance of theatrical illusion.

This project is fluid, its permanence and location dependent on further conversation. It will

never be built, nor should it be. It is not a proposal for an Olympic Park. Rather it calls atten-

tion to the ephemeral nature of spectacle in contrast with the permanence of the Olympics.

If the intent is to stage a performance, then the architecture must embrace theatricality.

1. London 2012, “Venues - Olympic Park”, london2012.com, accessed 6 December 2012. <http://www.london2012.com/spectators/venues/olympic-park/>.

2. Cronin, Brian. “London Olympics: Did a billion people watch the opening ceremony?” Los Angeles Times, 1 August 2012. accessed 6 december 2012.

<http://www.london2012.com/spectators/venues/olympic-park/>.

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history

study the history of the olympic park’s

site by understanding all of it at once

the olympic park was riddled with in-

dustrial and toxic waste in its soil due

to the large railyard that occupied the

site

the high speed line that now bisects the

majority of the site replaced these

older trains but did little to replenish

the land - locog had to launce a mas-

sive soil-cleaning operation

this set of overlaid maps highlights the

location of different periods in

stratford’s history

120705-Aerials-021.jpg

taken 05-07-2012

copyright oda, locog

100201-oda-mda-sb-017.jpg

taken 03-02-2010


photographs

locog commissioned and copyrighted a large database of photographs of the site during various

period of construction and use

these were then circulated to media outlets as the official photography of the 2012 olympic

games

this map reverse calculates the location of the photographer for each image in order to

understand from which areas the site was most photographed

each colored point corresponds to a photograph, either aerial or perspectival at ground

level, of the olympic park taken specifically to market the olympic games.

in 3d

now the photographs have been plotted in three dimensions to better understand the height

from which they were taken

notice that most of the photographs are aerial, taken from a helicopter over the site

by connecting the points, we can understand the web of space we, as viewers, inhabited while

viewing these pictures of the site

once the photographs are plotted in three dimensions, the most common points of view for

each olympic landmark are easily visible.

120705-aerials-142.jpg

taken 05-07-2010



taken 05-07-2012


photographs as points in 3d space photographic web as enclosure enclosure as volume

habitable section of enclosure

event as summation

boundaries

studying the aerial pho-

tography in three dimen-

sions, one can study view

cones : the depth between

foreground and background

in each image, the amount

of context in london

shown in each photograph

plotting these view cones

and investigating their

intersections reveals the

boundary condition of the

olympics

rather than being confined

to the olympic park, the

olympics as broadcast on

television included a

great deal of london’s

surrounding context -

these drawings indicate

the actual boundary of

the event

this boundary extends to

canary wharf in one di-

rection and the center of

london in the other.


taken 05-07-2012


note that in this image, the “site” extends as far from

stratford as canary wharf

120705-aerials-153.jpg

taken 05-07-2010


panoramic aerial photography includes an even larger range of site context - this image extends across the

thames, past the o2 arena

what does this mean?

plotting the location of the photographer in every

official photograph creates a three-dimensional sur-

face, demarcating the space from which the world

viewed the olympics

plotting the view cones of the aerial photographs,

which have the greatest depth of field, shows how

far our televisual sight goes. it tells us how far we

can see in each photograph.

both diagrams together show us two important aspects

of sight:

1 . where we stand when viewing

2 . how far our sight goes

what is then interesting is how little this combined

shape has to do with the shape of the olympic park

what if the park had been designed with this in mind?

evans, martin. “screen tourism towards 2012 : maximising olympic opportunities for uk destinations.” insights.org.uk, tourism insights - may 2009. <http://www.insights.org.uk/articleitem.aspx?title=Screen+Tourism+Towards+2012%3A+Maximising+Olympic+Opportunities+For+UK+Destinations>.

the olympics happened around the world, in every city simultaneously. the site of the olympics, therefore, is not

in london, but on the screens and newspapers, and in the minds of every viewer.

evans, martin. “screen tourism towards 2012 : maximising olympic opportunities for uk destinations.” insights.org.uk, tourism insights - may 2009. <http://www.insights.org.uk/articleitem.aspx?title=Screen+Tourism+Towards+2012%3A+Maximising+Olympic+Opportunities+For+UK+Destinations>.

madrid

candidate for 2016

games

london

home of 2012

games

seoul

home of 2011

world athletics

championships

rio de janeiro

home of 2016

games

moscow

home of 2014

winter olympics

beijing

home of 2008

games

tokyo

candidate for 2016

games

chicago

candidate for 2016

games

vancouver

home of 2010

winter olympics

through the power of the image, the olympic park was flattened and reduced into a virtual site.

it exists as a spatial construct in the mind of every viewer.

what does that construct look like?

can we design it?

aquatics centre

arcelormittal

orbit

water polo arena

olympic stadium

canal

handball court

broadcasting centre

hockey arena

wetlands

basketball arena

velodrome

bmx park

tennis courts

each image can be dissected into objects

surrounding an important focal point.

inhabit the space of the event.

inhabit the space of the event.

camera lucida

“photographs of landscape, urban or country,

must be habitable, not visitable. this longing to

inhabit...is neither oneiric...nor empirical; it is

fantasmatic, deriving from a kind of second

sight which seems to bear *the viewer*

forward...it is as if i were certain of having

been there or of going there.”

roland barthes, camera lucida, page 38-9

inhabit the space of the image.

original photograph flattening, removal of

perspective

acrylic painting in cubist

spirit

a provocation, an old-new way to see space?

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