The Great Mind Behind the World's Greatest Olympic Stadiums

Sept. 20, 2011 - PRLog -- Interview by Ben Avison, Host City
On behalf of Construction IQ

John Barrow RIBA, Senior Principal at Populous, joins Ben Avison of Host City to discuss the World Cup 2018 in Russia and the Winter Olympics 2014 in Sochi.


World Cup 2018: Russia

Host City:  Hi, my name is Ben Avison, I’m the editor of Host City magazine, the leading magazine for mega events. I’m here today with J Barrow of Populous, the leading sports architecture firm involved of the world’s mega events. John, would you like to tell us a little bit about the background to Populous and the future of Populous?

J Barrow:  Thanks very much, we’d like to think we’re the leading sports architects. We’ve been doing sports architecture now for over 27 years, since we started in 1984, as a global specialist with offices in the US, Australia and here in London. We’ve helped over ten Olympic host cities achieve successful conclusion to their events. We’ve been involved with the bidding process in Sochi, as we have here in London for 2012. I think it gives us a unique perspective on how to approach not only the bidding and the bidding documentation, but the process of overlay and oversee planning is part of the master plan right at the very outset. And that to us is a very key feature of what we do. Because of that, we think that Sochi has a unique formula. It’s a very compact Winter Olympics; and it will be the best Winter Olympics we’ve ever seen.

Host City: I’m sure it will; it’s a very exciting time for Russia in general. Not just for the Olympics but also with the World Cup coming up, Populous being involved in stadium designs, not just in Sochi but also in also in Kazan. And maybe one or two others.

Kazan also hopes to hold other sports events; like Sochi, it’s hosting the University Games in 2013. What are the considerations - I know that Kazan is positioning itself as the sports capital of Russia - so that must be a very exciting project to be involved in as well.

To download this transcript in full or watch the video please click here:


http://www.stadiumdevelopmenteurope.com/Event.aspx?id=572...


The Stadium and Venue Design and Development Russia & CIS Conference 2011 will take place in Berlin from 24th – 26th October 2011. For further information please visit www.stadiumdevelopmenteurope.com, email enquire@iqpc.co.uk or call +44 (0) 207 368 9300.