Athens Olympics
Client:
Jack Morton Public Events
Year of Completion:
2004
The opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic games in Athens entailed the use of a large pit to house the central flying feature (20M deep by 10M diameter) over which a layer of water could be held as part of their sea theme section. Ceremony co-ordinators Jack Morton Public Events approached Architen Landrell to help them find a way to achieve this aim.
The design brief from the client was to fill the aperture of the pit with a temporary pond to blend in with the rest of the flooded arena. Incorporated within the design was the ability to collapse the pond and clear the opening of the pit in less than 30 seconds so that the central feature of the opening ceremony could be flown out by cable winches.
Architen Landrell's innovative solution to this was to design, engineer and construct a unique high pressure air-supported structure utilising advanced drop-stitch butyl fabric. Using special air operated dump valves, the supporting beams could be deflated rapidly in a controlled manner to collase the pond into the pit and clear of the opening. As it was a one time, live show there was no room for error so all systems had to have double and in some cases triple redundancy built in.
Architen Landrell's brief included a cradle to grave programme, the development of the original concept, solving the clients' requirements which included proof of concept demonstrations, prototypes, final production, installation at the Olympic venue and finally, show time personnel.
The rest is history, the ceremony was executed without a hitch and the air-supported structure achieved it's aims!
