Nomadic Architecture to combat socio-economic challenges

In order to combat socio-economic and environmental challenges today’s world faces, architects of large infrastructure, for example the stadia for events such as the Olympic Games, are encouraged to think of the legacy approach, considering what purpose these structures will fulfil post event.

Started at the 2012 London Olympic Games, designs for Games venues started to incorporate more temporary infrastructure that could at the least be disassembled, and as is the case for many of the Rio Olympic stadia, reengineered for other purposes. Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes calls it ‘nomadic architecture’.

The material from Rio’s Future Arena will provide the material for 500-student primary schools in the city’s Jacarepaguá neighbourhood, and the aquatics stadium will be reconstructed into two community swimming centres, among other restorations.

Jeff Keas of Populous, responsible for the London Stadium designs for the 2012 Games, says temporary buildings can have a carbon footprint half the size of a conventional structure and save costs by 50 to 80 percent.

These lightweight structure designs have better integrity than ever before, and require far less time on site. Tension Structures’s tensile fabric structures offer just this ease of installation, and the ability to be disassembled. The nature of tensile structures designed with the integrity Tension Structures offers is they often reduce costs as they require less cumbersome foundations, also then diminishing installation time.

Sources:

Image – By Miriam Jeske/ brasil2016.gov.br (Portal Brasil 2016) [CC BY 3.0 br], via Wikimedia Commons

www.wired.com/2016/08/games-rios-stadiums-wont-rot-theyll-transform