Demolition begins for £1.3bn Olympia redevelopment

The bulldozers have been fired up and work is officially starting on the £1.3bn redevelopment of the London Olympia Exhibition Centre in West Kensington.Demolition of Olympia Central has now begun, signifying the start of the main construction work on Laing O’Rourke’s £600m contract.Developers Yoo Capital and Deutsche Finance International (DFI) have signed up Trafalgar Entertainment as tenant of the site’s new 1,575-seat theatre, agreeing a 70-year lease. It will be the largest new permanent theatre of its kind to open in London since the National Theatre in 1976. Work is beginning on a total of seven new buildings, including two hotels and a 4,400 capacity live music venue. Completion is scheduled for 2024.The existing Olympia Central Hall will be demolished while the structures of Olympia National and Olympia Grand, both Grade II listed, are being incorporated into the site’s overall redevelopment and will continue to host events while works are taking place.Laing O’Rourke has already completed a year’s worth of enabling works on the site. Using Laing O’Rourke’s ‘design for manufacture & assembly’ approach, the buildings’ walls and floors, and a large proportion of their M&E services, will be manufactured offsite in a factory. This will reduce the number of vehicle movements and operatives on site.The developers anticipate a total of 80,000 cubic metres of bulk excavation at the site. There will be 13 tower cranes and 10 hoists. This includes the tower crane currently installed to construct the Olympia West Hall which, at a reach of 75 metres, is the biggest on a non-infrastructure project in the UK, the developers say.Further elements of the development are also under way, with various enabling works already completed. A new energy centre that provides heating for the whole development and cooling for the exhibition areas is nearing completion. Structural strengthening to the West Hall exhibition space, to allow for the two-storey music venue to be constructed above, will be completed in the coming weeks. And foundations for the theatre building and Olympia Roof Garden have begun.The redevelopment is designed by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC Architecture. Robert Bird is providing structural, civil, geotechnical and construction engineering services.