Eton Manor is the only dedicated Paralympics venue within the London 2012 Olympic Park. Forming the gateway to the Olympic Park, it hosted the Wheelchair tennis events and provided aquatics training facilities during the London 2012 Games. It is now being transformed into the Lee Valley Tennis and Hockey Centre, comprising indoor and outdoor tennis facilities, two hockey pitches, a 3,500 seat stadium. The venue will also house a mountain bike trail linked to the adjacent Velodrome, five-a-side football zone and public allotments.
A design concept of ‘Build it Once’ took the legacy form as the starting point of design, with the Games facilities seen as a temporary overlay, purposeful in appearance, yet easily removed. Within the masterplan, each facility has a distinct architectural identity. The main sports hall is an adaptable, naturally ventilated and daylit rectilinear box with all timber solution. Formed off site, its timber cassette wall and roof panels are constructed around a series of gulam roof beams spanning 40m – the largest of their kind in Europe. The rest of the venue is primarily formed by highly sustainable concrete with a variation of boardmarked and grit blasted finish, complimenting the texture of the timber.
