Aquatics Centre London, Olympics

The London Aquatics Centre is an interior support with two 50m swimming pools and a 25m diving pool, which will be one of the major venues of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. constructed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid, the centre is situated in the Olympic Park at Stratford in East London. Its characteristic architecture and curved roof will be the first venue visitors see upon entering the Olympic Park, and are close to the Olympic Stadium.

The centre will be for the Olympic action of swimming, diving, synchronised swimming and water polo final. During the Games it will have a capacity of 17,500, which will be reduced to 2,500 after the Games. It is accepted that the centre will leave a legacy of replacing the pools at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in South London as the UK's most important facility for aquatic sports.

Presently the only Olympic sized swimming pools in the UK are in Sheffield, Leeds, Sunderland, Cardiff and Glasgow, although in addition to London a pool is being constructed in Plymouth. There are however many more 50m pools that do not meet all the criterion to be labelled 'Olympic-sized'.

Construction
Construction started on the 17 July 2008, 2 months ahead of plan and is due to be completed in 2011 by construction firm Balfour Beatty.

Cost
On 8 April 2008 it was accepted that the centre will cost about three times as was originally calculated, totalling about £242m.