Commons committee slams Zaha's 'expensive' and 'overdesigned' Olympic Aquatics Centre
- Published: 30 April 2008 11:49
- Author: Richard Vaughan
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- Last Updated: 30 April 2008 14:23
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A House of Commons select committee has blasted Zaha Hadid's 2012 Olympics Aquatics Centre as being 'over-designed', and accused London Olympic organisers of being 'willing to spend money like water'.
The select committee report, issued today, slammed the astronomical rise in costs for Hadid's building – up to £303 million today from £73 million in 2004.
The report said: 'The Aquatics Centre, at £303 million, will cost more than four times the forecast provided in the candidature file submitted in 2004.
'The concept of the Aquatics Centre might be spectacular and eye-catching; but it appears to be over-designed and will be an expensive way of providing the facilities for water sports needed during and after the Games.
'In our opinion,' the report added, 'the history of the Aquatics Centre shows a risible approach to cost control and that the Games organisers seem to be willing to spend money like water.'
The cross-party report also raised concerns over decisions being made on venue contracts without a legacy operator being named.
The report added that the contingency budget for the 2012 Games should not be touched before 2011 due to its substantial size.
The report said: 'The true total for contingency is £3.72 billion, which includes £238 million for security contingency. The remainder – £3.482 billion – is available to the ODA and forms 62 per cent of its base costs.
'Given the enormous size of this figure, we recommend that a substantial proportion of the programme contingency should be regarded as untouchable before 2011.'
