Why did the London Olympics cost so much money, but it was still so humble?

The renderings of the 80,000-seat to1.8,000-seat London Olympic Stadium. The "magic" of the stadium is that it can accommodate 80,000 people during the Olympic Games and 1.8 million people after the Olympic Games (photo of this newspaper). The rule is "no!" From the very beginning, the London Olympic planning has included the "post-Olympic planning", and the "back road" has long been reserved. They are clearly opposed to buildings that cost a lot of money to take care of after the games, and buildings that are only suitable for athletes and not for residents. 20 12 In the planning of London Olympic Games, the Olympic Stadium in Lower Leah Valley in east London has a capacity of 80,000 people. After the Olympic Games, the transportation capacity will be reduced to 1.8 million. Although there are six Premier League football teams in London, none of them want to claim this stadium. "The London Olympics never wanted to build a building that would become a burden. It will be useless after the game, but it will cost a lot of money to take care of it. " Steve McCullough, who attended the Urban Renewal Design Forum in Hong Kong, said. Mike Carlton was a senior member of the London Olympic bid planning group, and the "Fluid" architectural firm under his leadership was responsible for investigating and consulting the communities and people in the "Lower Leia Valley" area of the Olympic bid planning group, and ensuring that the consulting results were used to guide and adjust the Olympic Games and its subsequent development plans. Most of the London Olympic Games will be held in Lower Leah Valley. In the description of the London Development Board, this area is characterized by "a large area of abandoned industrial land and simple houses, which is one of the poorest communities in Britain and has the worst public health record." The unemployment rate is high and the skill level is low, and the population of blacks and ethnic minorities is the highest in the capital. From 65438 to the mid-1990s, "Lower Leah Valley" was designated as the key area of urban renewal in London. After the battle for the right to host the 20 12 Olympic Games started, the London Olympic bid committee stressed: "If the Olympic Games can be held to promote the transformation of this region, the problems of poverty, unemployment, lack of basic skills and poor health will be greatly improved." Richard Rogers, special adviser to the mayor of London, believes that taking the Olympic Games as an opportunity to transform the old city and improve the living standards of the city and the country has played a vital role in winning the right to host the Olympic Games in London. The "London Olympic bid planning team" consists of five urban planning, landscape, architectural design and consulting companies, including Fluid. Since August 2003, it has been assigned to complete the overall planning and subsequent development of Olympic venues, with the goal of winning the right to host the 20 12 Olympic Games for London. This task was completed in July this year 1, and the planning team no longer exists. "The original planning team has been streamlined and is preparing for a new bid, hoping to get a new contract from the London Olympic Organizing Committee. If the team is re-appointed, Fluid may be re-appointed and sign another contract. Quite complicated, isn't it? " Mike Carlton smiled. "In Britain, if the government comes to spend public funds, everything must be extremely fair and just-we did a good job before, but they said, yes, but we still have to re-tender all over the world." Olympic reporter full of temporary buildings: I understand that the work of the London Olympic bid planning team can be divided into three categories-Olympic planning, non-Olympic planning and post-Olympic planning. How different are they? Mccarton: There are only two kinds now-Olympic Games and post-Olympic Games. If the Olympic Games are not bid, non-Olympic planning will be carried out. Even if the Olympic bid fails, we will build some buildings, such as the water sports center designed by Zaha Hadid. This is the only building in the non-Olympic planning. It has a large swimming pool and a leisure center, and its geographical location is also good for residents. But there is a problem. There will be thousands of people coming and going during the Olympic Games. It is very important that when the audience comes to watch the Olympic Games, they should have enough time to walk and not get crowded as soon as they get off the train-this is the case with the Sydney Olympic Games. Therefore, in the planning, the walking distance from the train station to the sports ground is 10- 15 minutes, which is enough to make the crowd natural and orderly. But after the Olympics, the distance is too far for local residents, so we plan to install electric trails after the Olympics-you can't move the swimming pool, but you can make people move faster. During the Olympic Games, we will have two track and field swimming pools and a diving pool. After the game, there is only one swimming pool with diving center left. The other two main swimming pools are temporary and specially built for the Olympic Games. When it is done, it will be dismantled, and the audience will not exist. This kind of temporary building is very special and big, but that's how we planned it. Reporter: It is said that the Olympic Stadium, the main venue, will have 25,000 seats after the Olympic Games. Mccarton: It may even be 6.5438+0.8 million. At first, we imagined that a big football club would use it as its home, such as Arsenal or West Ham United. However, the negotiations in this regard have not achieved substantive results. The London Olympics never wanted to build a building that would become a burden. It is useless after the game, but it will cost a lot of money to take care of it. The rule is: "No!" If a building plan does not have a clear post-Olympic plan, it cannot be completed. For us, this guideline is very clear and correct. For another example, we have a media center and an international broadcasting center, which are very large, hundreds of thousands of square meters, and will be used by various media during the Olympic Games. For us, the most important thing in planning these two centers is not buildings-we want to turn them into temporary buildings, but infrastructure, communication networks, cables and optical fibers. We must find out how the local residents use these things. We plan to set up a local visual arts training college after the Olympic Games, so that all these facilities can be used. There is also a large area, the so-called dressing area, where athletes stay before the competition. Part of it will be used for industrial purposes in the future, because this place is a slum in London, and we need to create more employment opportunities and provide more training. At the northern end of the Olympic stadium, there are three main basketball courts, two of which disappeared after the Olympic Games, and the largest one is used for industrial purposes. Reporter: This year, The Guardian reported that many stadiums were vacant after the Athens Olympic Games. Surely London has learned a lot from it? Mike Carlton: The situation in Athens is different. Before the Olympic Games, they had a main stadium, but they added a roof, a rather complicated roof. They only need to spend money on the roof, and it won't be too expensive to maintain the roof in the future. But you're right. That stadium is not used very often. This is a problem. The same thing happened in Sydney. It takes about 25 minutes by train from downtown Sydney to the Olympic Stadium, which can be regarded as a suburb. Not enough people go there often now. Therefore, our proposal to build a stadium with adjustable capacity has been approved by the Olympic Organizing Committee. But you should know that building an 80,000-seat stadium will become 1.8 million in the future, which is a huge task. It takes a lot of effort to make the stadium look permanent during the Olympic Games, but it is actually temporary. Reporter: Can't even the Olympic Village be a temporary building? McCullough: Of course not. After the Olympic Games, the Olympic Village will become a residential building, which needs supporting shops, schools and churches ... We hope to design it as a part of the city and then make some minor changes to make it suitable for athletes, instead of designing it for athletes in turn and then letting residents adapt. Reporter: You have been appointed in the Olympic bid planning team to complete the "long-term development strategy" of the "Lower Leah Valley" area. What strategy is this? Mike Carlton: The Lower Leah Valley is very big, covering an area of 200 hectares. There are many factories, and the centers are old industrial areas and polluted areas. There are many waterways, criss-crossing canals, complex terrain and frequent flooding of rivers, so there has been no development for many years. The development of this place needs a big plan, and the Olympic Games has given us an opportunity. However, the Olympic venues are only located in the northern part of the Lower Leah Valley, and the southern part of the Thames, two miles downstream, needs to be rebuilt. So we should consider building new houses, schools and public facilities there after the Olympic Games, and we should also consider which sports facilities can be retained after the Olympic Games. The follow-up planning of the Olympic Games is to achieve this. The long-term development strategy is to compare London to a cake. The "Lower Leah Valley" is quite large, but it is not connected with other parts, which is very unfavorable to business and economy. But the location of this area is very important, very close to the financial center of London. One of our strategies is to build more municipal bridges to connect it with the rest of London. Another strategy is to build a big park. At present, the small parks and green spaces in Lower Leah Valley are dotted with polluted land. If those parks and green spaces are unified, it will become one of the largest park landscapes in Europe. The third strategy, a large-scale construction plan is being carried out at present, called Stratford City, a concentrated commercial and retail area, including some different architectural development projects, and this strategy is related to it. Reporter: Who are your consultants and consultants mainly targeting? Maccarton: We are mainly responsible for consulting with the stakeholders involved in the transformation and communicating with the community. These people are sometimes senior officials of the government and local governments, and sometimes ordinary local residents. We should listen to everyone's opinions and understand everything in the local reality that is useful for this plan. Reporter: What have you heard about the needs of local residents? Mccarton: Very diverse. Some people think that public leisure land is the most important, some people worry about traffic problems, and some people worry that too many cars will bring noise and pollution, so we must plan an efficient public transportation system very carefully and discourage the development of private cars. Some people think that the school facilities here are too poor and children need better opportunities, so the new school is also in our plan. Speaking of details, you know that some residents grow vegetables in the garden in front of their houses, and we have to talk to them from house to house about what to do with this land-whether their small vegetable garden can be preserved and where to move if it is to be moved-it seems ridiculous that we are doing a project with an investment of 3.5 billion yuan, but we are talking about such trivial matters. Many times, local residents are really powerful. Our job is to negotiate with them, make plans to meet their needs, and ensure their interests in the planning. "London 20 12" company is responsible for bidding for the Olympic Games, and their task is to win the right to host the Olympic Games. Our job is to submit the renovation plan, ensure public participation and ensure people's support for the plan. We must always communicate with "London 20 12" and make them promise to do something-without us, they probably wouldn't do it. But they also established a multi-party forum, and some local residents who participated in our activities later participated in the forum. Some of their demands have been met and some have failed, but this is life. Reporter: Is anyone opposed to hosting the Olympic Games? McCullough: Yes. Interestingly, local residents want the Olympics, but those who don't live here don't agree. They are worried about wildlife and ecological diversity. They think that the Olympic Games will destroy the wildlife here and actively organize opposition activities. Many people worry from the ecological point of view that the Olympic Games will increase traffic flow and pollute the atmosphere, so the Olympic Games should not be held. We can't respond to this opinion, but we can only say, "You're right, but if the Olympics don't come to London, we'll go to someone else's house. If we go to Paris, we have calculated that it will produce a longer flight distance, because many flights are transferred to Paris via London, which will produce more pollution, and you are still falling. " I think they should understand that this is an unsolved problem, but we should make them feel that their concerns are understood. Reporter: How many people will be directly affected by the implementation of the London Olympic planning? Mccarton: it depends on how the boundaries are drawn. Counting all kinds of factors, about 1.8 million people in the areas that we need to transform are directly affected by the Olympic Games, which brings considerable difficulties to our work. Obviously, the Olympic Games don't want negative news and people unhappy, so it takes a lot of time to let the public know about this process. Our work started in August 2003. It was originally planned to get the planning permission in June+February 5438, but it was not completed until June 2004. After that, we have to spend a lot of time revising the plan according to the objection to the site planning. The final Olympic planning and follow-up planning were not completed until August 2004. Then we began to negotiate with some related groups. For example, there is a residential area, which is in the center of the planning area and must be moved. About 400 people live there. It is a cheap house built 25 years ago, the so-called "housing cooperative". We had countless difficult negotiations, but in the end we found that people there really wanted to move away, no matter where they went. We communicate with the HS by counting the places they want to go. At the end of the year, a good large-scale housing mutual aid company took over the relocation plan and is currently carrying out new residential projects. Another difficulty is that there are about 250 large and small commercial entities in the "Lower Leah Valley" area, which must also be relocated. Our client, the London Development Board, is conducting one-on-one negotiations with each merchant. They set up a special account, appointed a special project manager and discussed where businessmen can move. The London Development Authority will acquire the property and land of the merchants and pay a subsidy of about 20%. Anyway, I think the final plan will satisfy most people. Even some people who were skeptical at first would think it was good. Have a big park, a new and perfect road network, and provide clean waterways for non-motor vehicles. There are many ancient buildings in Lower Leah Valley, and we will clean them up and open them to the audience, so even if we don't consider the Olympic Games, we will only consider the future, and there are many benefits.