Why do you think that is? Is it something to do with timber, by any stretch of the imagination?

 

Um. It's probably a combination. It is a sculptural object that's got a lot of finesse to and a lot of power and energy as well. I think it does do what we said, which is it sort of speaks cycling on the outside. It's also an open building - we've got that ring of glass in so you can walk up to it and look in. Most velodromes are closed boxes. So, the idea was it met all its internal functions but still opened up to the outside, both looking in and looking out. I guess ultimately, whatever you say about the building, people like buildings more if they think they're beautiful. And the sculptural dynamism of that shape, sitting on the sort of plinth of the concourse and the grass just seems to work; people like it.

 

You're a cyclist yourself. I'm wondering how many times you've ridden the boards inside there?

 

I've ridden around a few times. I have since then been lucky enough to ride round the Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan. And that's an interesting parallel. That's one of the great tracks in the world – 400 meters, built in 1935; sort of futuristic design. It's even got 9000 seats; it's covered but not an enclosed building. And I was talking to Italian cyclists in a lecture at Milan Polytechnic last week, and they were lamenting the fact they haven't got a Class One UCI covered 250-metre velodrome in Italy, which is where you can have World Championships and World Cups and everything. And that is from a nation that now are the current Men's Team Pursuit champions from the Tokyo Olympics, with the world record. Seems incredible they don't have a track, so it just in a way reinforces how lucky we are in London now to have a 6000-seat velodrome.

 

So, did you pick up a job whilst you were out there to do one to rectify that? (laughs)

 

No. We've looked at lots of velodromes in other countries and other cities. And nothing has ever come off. And I think in some ways, it's territorial. It's good to have a home architect designing your own venue.

 

Right. And I wondered also, about your views about the whole London 2012 project and the legacy thereof. How do you think we did?

 

I think we did really well. From Danny Boyle's absolutely brilliant opening ceremony, which, when you look back on it is quite emotional, almost, to think what we've been through since then. And his almost prophetic celebration of the NHS – which didn't go necessarily well with everybody, including the political classes at the time. But my word, he really pulled off something extraordinary, I think, with that opening ceremony, and the cultural references, and the subtle, not too bombastic or pious way he did it; quite humorous, I think was absolutely brilliant and inspirational. And, you've got to remember, we were coming after Beijing, which had had the most enormous kind of fanfare of an opening ceremony and the grandiosity of the bird's nest stadium. We had to pitch it at something more thoughtful, more sustainable, and more culturally relevant to Europe and to Britain. And I think Danny Boyle did that brilliantly, I think what was good about the Olympic Park and the wider infrastructure of the Games, was not making all the buildings into monuments, and accepting temporary venues would be cleared away. And just keeping a few pieces that were dedicated to their one sport; I think that's paid off. And I think the design of the park has paid off. At the time, to be honest, I thought the Olympic Village was a little bit over-scaled, and could have been more broken down. But seeing how we're building in London now, at places like Nine Elms, the Olympic Park looks relatively modest. And I think as people move in, and those spaces become occupied, it's a great new quarter for London. And if you go back to the very origins of the pitch for 2012, we were looking to redistribute wealth from the west to the east and to build up. There's that great Abercrombie Plan that shows how you could bring prosperity to that part of Lee Valley and the East End. How we could transfer prosperity to the east, and in a way, we have as a city and country been successful at that.

 

We could call it Levelling East or Levelling Sideways, In today's parlance, couldn't we? (laughs)

 

(laughs) I'm not going to use that expression...

(laughs) So, any last thoughts about your involvement here? And also, in terms of how the regeneration of that quarter has stacked up against other cities worldwide? Do you think we sort of lead the way in terms of legacies?

 

I don't necessarily think so. I mean, for me, the high point in Olympic design was 40 years before ours, in 1972, with the Munich Olympics. You go back and look at that. And the energy and creativity and that architecture is just extraordinary. And to think that was 40 years before us. So I think we should be relatively modest in our assessment when you look at that. And I think if there was a criticism of the London Games, it was that there wasn't a more interconnectedness of the design. Because everything was sort of broken into parcels and elements and the creativity came to each one of those. But I think, looking back at Munich, it was fantastic how everything from the logo and the buildings all felt one of a piece. And even their Olympic Village, with all the issues that happened there, is fascinating to go back and look at. So I think the thing I'd like to just think about, and because we were designing the cycling venue, and because we now had this fantastically successful track cycling team, we inherited a responsibility to deliver success to the British team, in London. Because when you look when you look at it like that the countries hosting the Games are somewhat in competition with each other, to get world records and have successful games. And the home team always needs to perform to make it popular and bring the crowd on in that country. And you know, we did that. And I think the other the other thing, therefore, is, what did this project and the Games do for cycling in London and in Britain, given we were so successful? I think it was absolutely fantastic, wasn't it, to watch Chris Hoy win his Keirin? 

 

Yeah, yeah, amazing. 

 

And then, Dave Brailsford has taken the brave decision to put Jason Kenny in the sprint and drop Chris Hoy for that. And he got the gold medal in that. And of course, he won the men's team pursuit, which is somehow the Blue-Ribbon event in terms of a nation's status as the preeminent cycling nation. And the women's team pursuit won gold as well. So that was fantastic. And actually, you always get this tail off after your home games where the performance of the home team starts to decline inevitably. But actually, you know, in 2018, we had Geraint Thomas won the Tour de France, Chris Froome won the Giro and Simon Yates won the Vuelta. If you'd gone back 20 years and put money on that (laughs), I mean, it was unimaginable three riders simultaneously from Britain, winning the Grand Tours. And we've done well in the world championships, we've got all these new riders coming through. So at the elite level, we have managed to maintain a level of success that's not far off what we were getting then, at our absolute peak. And I think for me, as a commuter, and just someone interested in cycling generally, I'm really interested in the trickle-down effect from all of those successful professional cyclists into encouraging people to cycle in our city. I think the contribution of the Velodrome to London is about encouraging cycling, directly and indirectly, and getting more cars off our roads and getting more people into cycling, which is a no-brainer. It's healthy, it's sustainable. It's non-polluting. And the more we can encourage it, the better.

 

Hear, hear. Absolutely. 

And congratulations! It doesn't look a day older than it did when it opened as far as I'm concerned. But what is the life of a building like that? I mean, obviously you have to maintain the track, for example, but everything else so are you expecting it to last for 40, 50, 60 years?

 

Well, a standard design life in building spec terms is 60 years. But obviously, your concrete and everything lasts longer, your double-glazed units start to go after 25-30 years. There's no reason that building, well maintained, can't last a lot longer. The track will wear out. What actually happens – and they've replaced it at Manchester already – is they get a chainsaw and cut up the boards between the trusses. They pull it out with a crowbar in low tech fashion and roll up the track by pulling the nails out, because the track is 40mm by 40mm Siberian pine, nailed onto timber trusses. You rip it all out. And then you lay new boards on when it starts to wear out. So, at some point, that will have to happen when it's had too much use. Other than that, we just need to make sure that the timber cladding on the outside gets a bit of TLC every so often. And it can go on and on.

 

Well, congratulations again. It's great. We all love it (laughs)

 

Well, I think it's very nice to look back at 2012 from 2022. Because there's a sort of warm glow of everything we all achieved and how the nation felt at that time. And you know, life is not quite as charming and easy these days for many people, is it? So it's a nice memory to have.

 

Just one final, final point, if I may? We’re concerned that the arrival of Lee Valley Velodrome could signal the end of the historic Herne Hill venue, which was getting run down and was having trouble renewing its lease. We got involved with that campaign and helped deliver their refurbishment and designed the new pavilion. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength with a large increase in the number of riders, a packed programme of training and racing and all made possible by a group of passionate volunteers who coach and run the venue. The larger track with less steep banking is a better place to learn to ride and has a constant stream of talented youngsters coming through the system like Ethan Hayter, who is the current World Omnium Champion.

 

Absolutely. Thanks for your time. Mike

 

David, that's a pleasure.