By Mina, 5B - Thursday 27th November 2018
"At home, I kept talking to my dad about our amazing 2020 Olympic Project that we are all currently working on. He was interested and said he would be happy to come in and talk to the Year 5 students because he worked on, lendleased, designed, developed and built the 2012 Olympic Village in London.
The day came when my dad ( Andrew Gauci ) talked about some of the key things that are required for a successful Olympic Village, this is what he said. He posed this question: “Can the athletes access the stadium and competition areas easily, securely and safely?”
He explained that the location of the Olympic Village could not be too far from the New National Stadium (where the opening and closing ceremonies will take place, as well as key events) but it can not be right next to it because of costs, congestion and security.
He also talked about how to save money when building the accommodation for the athletes. Initially the Olympic Committee asked his company to make 4,200 rooms in one block but instead they only made 2,818. The reason is that they got rid of all the kitchens which the athletes very rarely use, and made a 4 person room into a 6 person room. He shared with us the importance of cutting costs wherever possible.
The topic of sustainability also came up a lot in his presentation. He explained that the Olympic Village needs to be reused after the event, rather than used as a one off, which is a complete waste of resources. He shared with us the legacy of the 2012 London Olympics and how it helped to serve its community even after the Olympics. This made us think carefully about how we intended to use our buildings afterwards.
With lots of new ideas and suggestions, we were all inspired to work extremely hard on our projects!