O2 arena
2007
HOK Sport

Facilities: 11-screen cinema; indoor beach; 2 concert halls; exhibition space
inside the former Millennium Dome

A cut away image of The O2 showing the placement of the arena inside the dome structure:


The O2 Arena
Location: Greenwich, UK
Client: Anschutz Entertainment Group
Completion Date: June 2007
Capacity: 20,000 seats
Value: £100m

The O2 Lounge entrance stair:


O2 arena text + photos from HOK Sport 030108:

Under the cover of one of the world’s most individual contemporary structures, a show of a different kind is being staged. The arena that was designed and constructed inside ‘The O2’ (formerly the Millennium Dome) will form the focus of an entertainment destination and stage an extensive range of music and sporting events. Opened in early 2007, it seats up to 23,000 people and will host up to 150 events in its first year of opening, making it the UK’s premier venue.

The O2 Arena during the Scissor Sisters concert:


The innovative design of the arena responds to its unique context within The O2, through an architectural approach focused on the experience of the users. With the event space and seating bowl forming the heart of the building, the public concourses and suite levels wrap around this core, and focus outwards into three main atria which address the internal levels of the building.

The VIP Club Lounge:


The combination of judicious material selection and dramatic lighting emphasises the scale and volume of the public realm. This is no more dramatically explored than in the triple height O2 blue room, where set against a backdrop of a 30m wide by 7m high projection wall, 500 visitors become central to the experience, interacting with their environment through the latest technology. A backdrop of clean architectural and graphic expression acknowledges the differing individuals who will attend the variety of events it holds, through a mix of bars, private lounges and food concessions.

The VIP Club Lounge:


The logistical challenge of placing a building the scale of the arena, within the Dome necessitated that the roof would have to sit tightly beneath the Dome liner fabric, whilst maintaining a minimum 4-metre separation for air and smoke reservoir provisions. Emergency exiting and fire / life safety considerations for the Arena will build upon approved solutions developed originally for the Dome. The innovative structural methodology required to erect the building cores and enormous roof system without conventional tower cranes lends itself to the fitting analogy of building a ship within a bottle, albeit at the largest scale imaginable.



The O2 Lounge:


O2 arena architect: HOK Sport

• The O2 has an overall diameter of 365 metres, an internal diameter of 320 metres, and a circumference of a kilometre
• It is 50 metres high at its central point
• The twelve steel masts are 100 metres high
• Over 70 kilometres of high-strength cabling make up the cable-net structure
• It encloses a ground-floor area of over 80,000 square metres
• At full capacity The O2 arena can hold 20,000 people
• Over 20,000 people worked on site to create The O2 as it stands today
• The O2 arena is the first purpose built music venue in London since the Royal Albert Hall was built in 1837
• The state of the art acoustics are designed to provide the perfect sound experience – the entire underside of the roof, upper walls, balcony fronts and seats are all treated to absorb sound making it the most advanced venue in Europe
• The roof of The O2 arena weighs 4,500 tonnes
• The O2 arena will host the 2012 gymnastics and basketball finals and is also the first Olympic venue to be completed
• The exhibition centre is arranged over two levels and covers 6,500m²
• All pints can be poured in 7 seconds
• 33,000 pints can be poured in half an hour
• The venue serves food from four continents around the world
• The venue has over 25 bars, restaurants and cafes
• There are 20 concession stands around the O2 arena offering anything from fish and chips to stir fry to freshly made sandwiches made in front of you
• The O2 has over 600 loos, meaning an end to seemingly never ending queues for women. (Wembley Arena has less than 200)
• 78% of all visitors will arrive by public transport
• If The O2 were ever turned upside down Niagra Falls would take 15 minutes to fill it
• Likewise it would take a million pints of beer to fill it
• Or 1,100 Olympic sized swimming pools
• The O2’s volume equals thirteen Albert Halls
• Or ten St Paul’s Cathedrals
• Or two Wembley Stadiums
• 18,000 double-decker buses could fit into the O2
• The O2 is as high as Nelson’s Column
• The Eiffel Tower lying on its side would fit into the O2
• The O2 could hold 12 football pitches
• Or 72 tennis courts
• The Entertainment District within the O2 is the same length as Bond Street
• The circumference of the tent is 1km

The O2 Arena concourses:


O2 arena : former Millennium Dome

Millennium Dome architect - Richard Rogers buildings


Photo © adrian welch jun 2007

London Architects



London Stadium : Olympics 2012

O2 Arena context : Greenwich Millennium Village

Lee Valley London

Millennium Dome context : North Greenwich Underground Station

World Architecture : e-architect - a guide to key buildings across the globe

Comments / photos for the O2 Arena Architecture page welcome:
info@e-architect.co.uk

O2 Arena London - page: adrian welch / isabelle lomholt