Planning and construction , during construction in April 2011. With the
Olympic Stadium in the centre of picture, the Olympic Village is at the bottom, centre|300px As part of the regeneration programme within the bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Village design to house the athletes was based on reusing the buildings after the games as a new residential district for Stratford. The basis for the residential plan was taken from the SCDC regeneration plan for the area as a consequence of the creation of the London-Paris high-speed link. The spoil from the tunnel which went underground at Stratford created the platform on which Westfield Shopping Centre and the Olympic Village were created. Through a competitive bidding process, the then
Labour British government chose a proposal by
Lend Lease which covered financing and construction of both the Olympic Village and part of the
London Olympics Media Centre. This would both provide accommodation for 22,500 athletes and team officials, 16,000 as Olympic and 6,500 as Paralympic built to Life Time Home standards to support the Paralympic residents and future residents with impairments or other physical challenges:afterwards provide a mix of low-cost and private residential housing, within a community that would comprise offices, shops, schools and a health centre. Cilantro Engineering were appointed to work as part of a collaborative team to deliver Design and Build MEP Installations for the main contractor,
Lend Lease. Lend Lease engaged a team of: architects Fletcher Priest; structural engineers
Arup; and
urban planning/
landscape architecture firm
West 8 and Vogt Landscape. They were briefed to design a village-garden type district to fit in with the wider
urban park vision of the Olympic Park legacy, emulating the classical
Victorian architecture layout of
Maida Vale and other parts of Victorian west London. On a site, In light of the
2008 financial crisis, Lend Lease found difficulties in raising funds on the commercial markets for the construction of the village, the single largest project in the 2012 Summer Olympics scheme. The government via the
Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) hence agreed to underwrite a greater part of the required sum, and a scale-back of the project scale by 25%, on the proviso that athletes competing in non-London based events would be housed locally to their competition, that three of the plots would be deferred until the post-Games period, plots 5,6 & 8. This did not solve the challenge of providing Games time bed numbers. A Games design plan was created which introduced temporary walls within the legacy design to create more bed spaces: thus a 2-bed space, single-bedroom apartment became 4; a four-bed apartment, 2 bedrooms became 6 and six-bed apartment became 8 mainly by dividing the open plan lounge, dining and kitchen areas. Everything was retrofitted back to the original concept after the Games. Only the town houses over three levels were not subject to this Games time modification but still increased bed spaces from legacy 6 to 8 by use of the separate lounge. Following the athletes' experiences in
Beijing 2008, and in particular through comments concerning athletes' welfare by International Olympic Committee President
Jacques Rogge, this compromise was to be reconsidered whilst pressure built for the finance deal to be resolved. Up until this point, the proposed site had been a mix of former industrial buildings and contaminated waste land. The proposed site for the village provided two living camp sites for
Irish Travellers, one on Clays Lane, Newham, and a second on Waterden Crescent, Hackney. The final part of the Olympic CPO covering the village site, secured in December 2006, was unsuccessfully challenged by the travellers in the
High Court in May 2007. Towards the end of demolition/site clearance, on 12 November 2007, a fire broke out in an old industrial
warehouse on Waterden Road,
Hackney Wick, on the western edge of the proposed Olympic Village site. With flames of in height engulfing the building and sending clouds of acrid black smoke over the city centre, it took 75 firefighters from the
London Fire Brigade to bring the fire under control.
Olympic and Paralympic village During the summer of 2012, the first use for the blocks was as the
Olympic Village for the
2012 Summer Olympics. Taking the original design, the architects added temporary partitioning to create "hotel" style apartments catering for: and rest for officials during the Games): providing each athlete with floor space. In addition, the developers added two temporary buildings: a food hall, which was open 24 hours a day, capable of catering for 5,500 athletes at a time; and an entertainment hall of , providing Video games for the athletes use and a communal rest space, plus a non-alcoholic bar. The village also included a
plaza, where athletes were able to meet with friends and family during the games. and plaques in all East Village building foyers mark which countries stayed there. For example, the British team stayed in Calla House, Kotata House and Tayberry House; Greece in Hopground House; Spain in Carina House; Ukraine in Emperor House; Japan in Applegate House; Armenia, Peru and Slovenia in Calico House; Belgium, Cape Verde and Kyrgyzstan in Frye House; Costa Rica and Yemen in Galena House; and the Netherlands in Heinieken House.
After the Games After the conclusion of the games, the Olympic housing was adapted to create a new residential quarter to be known as East Village. a joint-venture between
Jamie Ritblat's
Delancey and
Qatari Diar;
Hutchison Whampoa; and
Wellcome Trust, who bid to take over all the Olympic park. In August 2011, the ODA announced an agreement with Delancey/Qatari Diar, who paid £557 million for the East Village site, representing an estimated £275 million loss to the ODA and hence the British taxpayer. Culture Secretary
Jeremy Hunt commented that the ODA never expected to recoup building costs: ''"It was an entirely empty site, it didn't have any infrastructure, roads or parks. There was always going to be a public sector contribution to help put those in."'' in April 2012|393x393px Temporary partitions installed during the games are being removed to create a range of one to five-bed homes, ranging from apartments to
townhouses. The hotel style designed rooms were converted to include kitchens. 1,439 private homes are let on a rental basis, instead of being sold, with the ownership remaining with Delancey/Qatari Diar and managed by Get Living London. This created the first UK private sector residential fund of over 1,000 homes to be owned and directly managed as an investment. for residents of East Village and the surrounding areas has also been constructed. Independent retailers have been brought in to East Village, which is now a neighbourhood in its own right. In 2023, permission was granted to build a further 848 rental homes and 504 student beds, responding to rising demand from private tenants and students at new campuses of universities including
University College London and
University of the Arts London. The developers also added
Chobham Academy, a new education campus with 1,800 places for students aged 3–19. During the Olympics, the school building was used as the main base for organising and managing teams. Rebuilt after the games, it opened in September 2013 as Chobham Academy, home to an education campus, comprising
nursery,
primary and
secondary schools; an adult learning facility; and a community arts complex. In July 2015 Chobham Academy was rated 'Outstanding' by OFSTED. ==Transport==