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News

Royal Mail celebrates contemporary architecture

Royal Mail celebrates architecture in the UK with the launch of a set of Special Stamps which includes the London Aquatics Centre.

Also featured in the Special Stamps set are: the Blavatnik Building at Tate Modern, London; the Library of Birmingham; the SEC Armadillo, Glasgow; the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh; Giants’ Causeway Visitor Centre, Northern Ireland; the National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff, the Eden Project in St Austell; the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool; and the IWM North, Manchester.

The past two decades have seen a surge in the construction of new public buildings in the UK serving culture, sport, government and business. These projects have since become popular and integral parts of their local communities, often playing a part in regeneration.

Philip Parker, Stamp Strategy Manager, Royal Mail, said: “These new stamps celebrate visionary buildings which combine stunning architecture with great engineering.”

Jim Heverin, director at Zaha Hadid Architects and project director of the London Aquatics Centre, said: “It is an honour for the London Aquatics Centre to be featured on a stamp. With almost 3 million visitors since opening to the public, the Aquatics Centre is a fantastic legacy of London 2012.”

Ten new world records were set in the Aquatics Centre during the London 2012 Olympics, with 1.5 million spectators visiting the building throughout the London Olympic and Paralympic Games - voting it the best venue of the London 2012 . The centre was designed and built for its legacy to London and it has become a very popular public space and sporting venue for its community.

14,000 people in East London now use the Aquatics Centre every week – and 4,000 local children are learning to swim each week in the centre. Over 50 different local schools also use the centre for their swimming lessons - bringing many thousands more children to learn to swim every month.

On opening to the public in 2014, the London Aquatics Centre was reported by the Guardian newspaper as “the most jaw-dropping municipal swimming pool in the world. From the curved wall of grass that encloses the lower levels to the swooping wave of a roof, this organic-looking structure beckons you in… it is not until you reach the cathedral-like interior of the main pool hall that you realise the extraordinary skill of the architect. Anyone can now swim in it for around the same entrance fee as other local pools. It is a great legacy of the Olympics.”

Royal Mail: Landmark Buildings

The Guardian: “In praise of… London Aquatics Centre”