Laura Brown

Postgraduate Research

The Summer Olympic Games have exhibited exponential growth in size and popularity over recent decades; attaining a truly global status exacerbated by technological advancements. Despite the escalating costs and economical pressures associated with hosting the Games, the role of host city continues to hold prestige, honour, and regeneration possibilities for cities. Offering a brief appraisal of the historical development, architectural endeavours, and the priorities for post-use in Olympic construction, this research considers the multi-faceted construct of architectural legacy; and applies a framework to test those principles at urban and architectural scales. Focused upon the design process and architectural quality of Olympic nodes in the post World War II European Olympic Cities of London (1948), Helsinki (1952), Rome (1960), Munich (1972), Barcelona (1992), Athens (2004) and London (2012), the research proposition is to develop design principles to maximise effective, sustainable use of buildings, and regeneration of host cities for future Games.

Supervisors

Dr Manuel Cresciani
Professor Bob Giddings

Key Publications

Research Paper: Proceedings of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) Symposium 2015, Amsterdam, Future Visions, Olympic Legacies of Roma 1960 and Athens 2004, co-authored by Dr. Manuel Cresciani.

Research Paper: Proceedings of the 12th International Postgraduate Research Conference 2015, Salford, Evaluating Perspectives of Olympic Legacy in Modern European Olympic Architecture (1948-2012). (Awarded: PVC Research and Innovation Award for Best Paper on Impact on Society, Industry and Academia).

Poster Presentation: Northumbria University Annual Research Conference 2015, Evaluating Legacies of Modern European Olympic Architecture (1948-2012).