2012 Features

London 2012 officials have revealed the design for their new £496m Olympic Stadium.

The London skyline and 2012 Stadium

Chief architect Rob Sheard, of HOK Sport, said the stadium would make a big impact, but not in the same way that previous Olympic stadia had.

"This is not a stadium that's going to be screaming from the rooftops that it's bigger and more spectacular," he said. "This is just a cleverer building. This is a cleverer solution."

The new Olympic Stadium

He added that the ability to convert the stadium from an 80,000-seater venue to a 25,000 one once the Olympics and Paralympics had finished was highly innovative and showed great forward thinking.

"We've ended up with a very tight, very compelling bowl," said Sheard. "The atmosphere inside this bowl, we think, will be pretty special."

The 2012 stadium's 'segments'

The new stadium, to be built in Stratford in east London, will have to be finished at least six months ahead of the opening ceremony in July 2012 to allow for test events to take place.

The stadium will host athletics and the opening and closing ceremonies.

After the Games have finished, the temporary seating will be taken away and the stadium will become a 25,000-capacity venue with a permanent athletics track.

An anchor tenant such as a football or rugby club is actively being sought, but one has yet to be found.

What do you think of the design?

The Olympic Park, Stratford.

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The Olympic Park, Stratford.

The 2012 games will feature 10,500 Olympic athletes, 4,200 Paralympic athletes and will attract 1.2m visitors. After the games 9,000 new homes will be built and the area will benefit from state-of-the-art sporting venues.