Olympic Aquatics Stadium - Swimming and Water Polo

Olympic Aquatics Stadium - Swimming and Water Polo

Location - Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro

Constructed - 2016

Capacity - 15,000

Architect - Álvaro Siza

The Olympic Aquatics Stadium is a temporary venue playing host to the Olympic swimming and water polo events. This amazing building is actually the pieces of two, which will be built with many of the current structural elements after the completion of the games. The architect of this stadium aimed to make it among the most sustainable temporary venues used for the Rio Olympics. The technique of construction, with an aim to reuse the pieces of the building for a permanent building afterward is called "Nomadic Architecture" and was considered the primary design element from the start of the project.

Its tough to make temporary structures beautiful, however the architects accomplished it well with the OAS. The exterior is adorned with 66 panels designed by Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão, an homagic replication of a famous local painting, Varejão’s Celacanto Provoca Maremoto.

The 66 exterior panels make the stadium very pleasing to the eye

The entire building is cooled by simple natural ventilation. Extensive use of computer simulations provided information for the most effective way to cool the stadium, even at capacity, saving thousands in electrical costs. The exterior panels are treated with an anti-UV applique reducing heat transfer from the sun. Nearly 15,000 holes drilled in strategic places throughout the stadium provide a constant natural airflow. Looking at the stadium before it was clad with its exterior panels gives a good view of how airy and open it is inside.

The stadium is ventilated naturally reducing the need for expensive and power hungry air conditioning

The stadium has 2 50m pools on site, one for competition inside the stadium, and one for warmups just outside, and away from the public eye.

After the completion of the games, the structure will be dismantled and rebuilt into two aquatics centers with 6,000 and 3,000 seats respectively.

Do you have any questions about the Olympic Aquatics Stadium? Please feel free to ask in the comments!