[image]
[title]Olympic Park, London, E20 2AQ
Another of the Olympic Park's iconic buildings, the Aquatics Centre will be the first building many spectactors see - it's on the approach from Stratford Regional station, with visitors crossing a vast bridge that conceals the training pool, a river and a railway line.
RECOMMENDED: See our full list of London 2012 Olympic venues
The Aquatics Centre was designed by Iraqi-born starchitect Zaha Hadid in typically uncompromising style. Its talking point is the huge, wave-shaped roof - steel and glass on the outside, treated timber within - that is flanked by 42m-high temporary stands on either side. These will accommodate 15,000 people, with a further 2,500 seated on permanent concrete terracing. Inside, there are a 50m competition pool, 25m competition diving pool and a 50m warm-up pool. The first of 180,000 pool tiles was laid by world record-holding swimmer Mark Foster on 23 September 2010; the venue as a whole will use more than 800,000 ceramic tiles.
Location: In the south-east of the Park, between the Olympic Stadium and Stratford City
You might also like
See more London 2012 Olympic venues
See our London 2012 Olympic sport guides
See more in Things to Do