The Velodrome was a landmark venue designed for the indoor track cycling events at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Supreme design and value are integrated in the Velodrome, which is so clearly the physical representation of the function within. It is highly sustainable, engineered to optimum efficiency and represents great value for money, being delivered on budget and ahead of programme.

The brief for the project required a venue for indoor track cycling events at the London 2012 Olympic Games that would deliver a permanent structure and identity to become a lasting legacy for the area and the Olympic Park after the Games were completed. We designed the building for Legacy Mode and then adapted it for Games Mode.

At the heart of the Velodrome is the 250m long FSC-certified Siberian pine track. The track’s oval shape and banked corners had a major influence on the shape of the building. In order to achieve continuous spectator support the seating in the lower tier has been wrapped around the entire track.

The Olympic Delivery Authority set sustainability and material targets. Through careful consideration and integration of the architecture, structure and building services the design has met or exceeded these requirements. Our design strategy focussed on minimising demand for energy and water and integrating this into the fabric of the building.

Our overriding strategy was to design the building for Legacy Mode and then adapt it for Games Mode. The 6,000-seat venue was built to last but also had to add character to this new East London quarter - the ‘Pringle’ has since become an icon.

Like the design of the bicycle, we wanted the architecture of the Velodrome to allow the expression of how all the individual parts functioned. Bringing it altogether into an integrated whole was the challenge, and it called for a variety of design tools to co-ordinate across disciplines and eventually communicate the design to the subcontractors.

So while the budget, brief, programme and site might all be set out precisely at the outset, and contrary to what the procurement process demands, you cannot prescribe how to go about designing a complex building such as the 2012 Velodrome. Instead the process is iterative, unpredictable and non-linear. A vast amount of effort goes into ideas and proposals that don't get built, but they are nonetheless critical in helping to inform and refine the design along the way.

Whereas the design of the bicycle has evolved through numerous evolutionary steps, we had one hit at the Velodrome. We intended to use everything at our disposal to ensure we refined our design to the most elegant proposal possible.

We tended to use whatever medium was the most suitable for looking at a problem at any given time, and then compare the results. Though it might sound inefficient, this was beneficial, because it provided us with a range of representations of the emerging design. What worked in one medium might be shown to fail or look awful when seen presented using a different technique. The more immediate the means of looking, checking and communicating, the better for us, because it allowed more iterations in the restricted time available.

We had some brilliant people carrying out a range of highly skilled tasks from scripting and GC modelling, rendering animations, running XYZ movement tolerance criteria, right through to building scale models and full-size mock ups. It was only through this team effort that we resolved the emerging design problems.

Nonetheless, these are largely analytical tools, and you still need a philosophical and aesthetic vision. If this can be clearly expressed and easily assimilated by everyone, then you have a chance that you can all pull in the same direction.

Mike Taylor, Principal, Hopkins Architects