Exclusive: Firm expands masterplan role to include design development work on all Olympic park venues, infrastructure and landscaping

Rio

Aecom鈥檚 masterplanning role on the Rio 2016 Olympics has been extended by Games organisers, 好色先生TV can reveal.

Aecom 鈥� which was made Olympic park masterplanner alongside UK architect Wilkinson Eyre in August 2011 鈥� has since been contracted to carry out design development work on all the park venues and to design park infrastructure and landscaping.

The scope of venue work includes engineering and architecture, particularly specialist sports architecture.

Jason Prior, buildings and places lead at Aecom, told 好色先生TV the firm had taken the design of the Rio venues 鈥渁 lot further鈥� than it did on the London 2012 Olympic park, which it also masterplanned.

Aecom was awarded more design responsibilities on the Rio 2016 park partly due to the tighter development site and timetable than the London park, Prior said.

[We moved] beyond a simplified brief to the architects [鈥 to actually developed buildings

Jason Prior, Aecom

Aecom has handed over the venues to a range of architects 鈥� most of which are Brazilian 鈥� and is continuing to work with the client and the architects through the design process.

Prior said Aecom 鈥渆ffectively handed over an incredibly detailed briefing pack鈥� on the venues to architects, covering areas including 鈥渉ow do the bowls work, how will the buildings operate and how do they fit International Olympic Committee [IOC], sporting federation and safety standards鈥�.

He added: 鈥淭o some extent we took care of all the vulnerable bits of the brief in terms of how an IOC delegation might evaluate the buildings.鈥�

Aecom also designed how the venues will 鈥減lug into鈥� the park鈥檚 main undulating concourse at ground and first floor levels.

Prior said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very tight site so you have to manage crowd flows in a different way. This gave us the opportunity to move beyond a simplified brief to the architects in terms of where the buildings might sit, to actually developed buildings which we know plug in to the infrastructure in the right way.鈥�

The organisers have invited Aecom to bid for a number of 鈥渁dditional services鈥�, Prior said.

In addition, Aecom is 鈥渘ow working on more work outside the Rio Games鈥� in Brazil after a series of recent contract wins, he said.

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