Media center construction at London Olympics 2012 venue on track

The IBC and MPC will be designed to support 20,000 broadcasters, photographers and journalists communicating the games to an audience of approximately four billion people worldwide, during the London 2012 Olympics. UK’s support service and construction company, Carillion is building the IBC and MPC.

The foundation work has already begun. The enhanced designs include cladding and detailing for the 29,000 square meter MPC office block. In addition, there is a new chequerboard cladding design for the 60,000 square meter IBC studios and smaller sections of screening over the gantry that runs alongside the building, to break up the scale of the building visually.

Approval had already been granted for work on the venue’s foundations. Over 2200 concrete piles, about 90% of the total planned, have already been sunk up to 24 meter into the ground.

The IBC/MPC combines an innovative mixture of permanent and temporary elements during the games and has been designed to be as flexible as possible, to accommodate a range of potential legacy tenants and uses. The London Development Agency (LDA) has been leading the legacy planning and this work will be taken forward by the new Olympic Park Legacy Company, which will be fully operational by late 2009.

The MPC features 29,000 square meters of sustainable office space, innovatively designed with flexibility that enables the buildings to be adapted for future use after the games. The facility will have a connected single strip of single storey buildings facing the canal that can be separated into ‘mews’ accommodation, offering another type of quality business space.

The structure will feature innovative designs to meet demanding sustainable building standards including a 2,500 square meter ‘brown roof’ of gravel and moss to encourage invertebrates; 60% of non-drinking water to be collected from across the Olympic Park; habitats including over 100 bird and bat boxes.

The IBC features around 52,000 square meters of studio space of two 8-10 meter high floors and 8000 square meters of offices over five floors at the front of the building. The structure has been designed with flexibility and it can be separated into a number of units. The design features can also be altered.