London’s 2012 Olympic Velodrome is an Elegant Energy-Efficient Stadium by Hopkins Architects

As the world eagerly awaits the opening of the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/london-olympics/">2012 London Olympic Games</a> this Friday, final preparations are taking palce at the <a href="http://www.london2012.com/venue/velodrome/">2012 Velodrome Olympic Stadium</a> - an elegant building by <a href="http://www.hopkins.co.uk/projects/_3,131/">Hopkins Architects</a> that balances clean lines with sustainable building strategies. The Velodrome was the first of the “big-five” large projects to be completed for the games. With natural cooling, water harvesting and daylighting seamlessly integrated into the program, this structure bodes well for both green design and energy savings.

The beautiful saddle-like building was carefully engineered to be simple to construct with lightweight materials, and the construction takes advantage of use natural resources to operate as a calibrated, elegant whole.

The<a href="http://inhabitat.com/vancouver-2010-promises-greenest-games-ever/"> 2010 Vancouver games</a> gave us some ground breaking green projects so we look forward to see how the 2012 facilities turn out.

The striking white roof has rows of skylights crossing the complex, providing <a href="http://inhabitat.com/daylighting/">daylight</a> and allowing overhead lights to be off during the daytime.

The <a href="http://inhabitat.com/having-white-roofs-would-save-the-u-s-735-million-per-year/">white roof</a> is made from a net of cables supported by the surrounding steel super structure and will deflect the summer sun during the games thus reducing the cooling needs.

The <a href="http://inhabitat.com/index.php?s=cedar">cedar</a>-clad skin is perforated to allow convective cooling of the interior.

Air flows across the 6,000 stands of seats and through the top, being replaced by cool, fresh air from below.

The roof <a href="http://inhabitat.com/index.php?s=rain+water+catchment">collects rain water</a> as well, which is stored for later use in the faculty.

The bike track is expected to be the fastest in the world, furthermore designed to evenly distribute noise from the cheering crowd to keep from distracting riders.

Interior section.

Full section.