Olympics

Clean, graceful and very effective... let's call it The Pringle

Rowan Moore, Architecture Critic
8 Sep 2008

The Velo Park has the look that will define London 2012: simple, unfussy and, hopefully, practical. Without Beijing's vast, cheap labour force and generous budgets, there will not be Beijing's dazzle.

The idea is simple enough. It is to let the graceful curves inherent in a velodrome speak for themselves, and to echo the timber of the track in the cladding of the superstructure. The nicest touch is the way the roof sits on a ring of glass, which then sits on the mounded-up park. It means that this building floats lightly over the landscape, while giving spectators a sense of contact with the outdoors. It is designed by Hopkins Architects, the practice that made its name with the Mound Stand at Lords, and it is the sort of elegant, clean-lined structure that British architects have been good at for at least 20 years.

Its ultimate success will depend on the quality of its details, and their ability to survive the pressure of budgets. Everyone wants 2012 to be on budget, but not if it squeezes everything that is good about a building that will represent Britain in 2012, and will be a permanent landmark after that. The least convincing aspect is the huge expanse of internal ceiling, which looks a little on the cheap side.

The Velo Park is not radical architecture, nor a triumphant temple of Britain's new role as a nation of world-beating cyclists, and there is no reason why it should be either. It will let deeds on the track speak for themselves.

It's not a bird's nest, like Beijing's stadium, and it's not a water cube, like their aquatic centre. It looks more like a wellknown British potato snack: it will be The Pringle, perhaps.

Reader views (4)

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Once you pop you can't stop

- Mat Simon Garret, Dorking, 10/09/2008 13:45
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"let's call it The Pringle" the headline says.
This statement is written as though nobody has called it a "Pringle" before. Maybe rowan wants to be known as the one who dubbed this building the "Pringle".

um.....................Where have you been?

The original concept design appeared a year ago when the press gave it many names, the most glaringly obvious one being the "Pringle".

I'm no critic, but i do know that architecture is about being creative. Rowan, some creativity and originality from your architectural descriptions would be nice?

- Anthony Piper, Bristol, 10/09/2008 00:36
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It's obviously been inspired by the shape a bicycle wheel adopts after it's been run over by a lorry.

- John Rowland, London, 09/09/2008 15:01
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Why do writers on architecture insist on naming buildings after their resemblance to food items? Especially here whereby Rowan refers to the Velodrome as being a "well known British food snack" which is, in fact not British at all! Why not call it a velodrome, and leave it at that. There are plenty of ideas housed within this building (which Rowan obviously didn't think were significant enough to mention) other than the apparent resemblance to an American potato crisp.

- Richard, Southfields, London, 09/09/2008 14:07
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