Designed jointly by Sinclair Knight Merz, Wilkinson Eyre and KSS, this first-of-its-kind recyclable basketball stadium will make its debut at the London games. But, because if its strategic built-to-be-broken-down design, the 1,000-tonne steel structure can be reused after the games are over!
The recyclability factor and temporary nature of the structure conceivably means such grand scale games as the Olympics can be held in countries all across the globe — irrespective of their economic ability to contribute in a meaningful way. The Olympic Delivery Committee’s chief executive Dennis Hone was quoted as saying, “It makes a lot of sense, especially if you want to take the Games beyond the richest cities in the world. To do that, you’ve got to bring the costs down.”
To be sure this is an admirable goal, and something we should be striving for, but let’s not get too excited just yet. The cost of the structures for the games is massive, but infrastructure is generally considered to be an even bigger burden. Sure, maybe we could design a sort of “recyclable infrastructure,” that the Olympics could set up and take with them when they go (saving more resources), but one of the reasons cities and countries vie so hard to get the games is the idea the the Olympics will leave the city better than they found it, with shining new monuments, buildings, hell, public transportation in some cases. Maybe they’d be slightly less appealing if the city didn’t get to keep all that sweet swag Regardless, reusing all of that steel and other materials is a big step in the right direction. [Inhabitat]