Designed by Magma Architecture of London and Berlin, the Olympic Shooting Venue located at the Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich, comprises three PVC tents that have been erected at London’s historic Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich.
These venues look like the suckers of an octopus’ tentacles, each of the venues has been configured in a crisp, white double curved membrane façade studded with vibrantly coloured openings, almost projectile-esque in form. As well as animating the façade these nifty dots operate as tensioning nodes, the phthalate-free pvc membrane – all 18,000sq metres of it – functioning best in this stretched format.
© J.L. Diehl
This is one of the last remaining new arenas to be built for the Games and will stage Shooting, Paralympic Shooting and Paralympic Archery across three indoor ranges and three open air ranges. All three indoor ranges (a 25-metre, a combined 50/10-metre and a finals range) were completed using around 1,200 tonnes of steel and clad in plywood, while open air ranges will be at the southeast London site. Spectator seating enclosures for the 25-metre and combined ranges are also in place.
© J.L. Diehl
Central to our work is experimentation in spatial dynamics. This generates a language that we feel better articulates and reflects the heterogeneity of our cities and global culture. We seek to be part of a new paradigm within architecture – one that is expressionistic, rooted in non-linear form-making and facilitated by new materiality and cutting edge technologies. Martin Ostermann & Lena Kleinheinz – Magma Architecture© J.L. Diehl
It is estimated that more than 104,000 spectators will watch the competitions during the Games – equating to around 4,000 people every day. The three ranges, located in the grounds of the Royal Artillery Barracks, comprise: a fully enclosed finals range; a partially enclosed 25m range for the qualifying rounds of the 25m pistol and 25m rapid fire pistol events; and a partially enclosed 10m/50m range for the qualifying rounds of the 10m air rifle and 10m air pistol events, as well as for the 50m rifle and 50m pistol events.