The London Olympic Stadium is sited on a diamond-shaped island between two existing waterways, located within the southern section of the new Olympic Park. The seating bowl is compact, bringing all 80, 000 spectators far closer to the event than previous Games venues. The design makes full use of the site's island situation, providing a complete circuit of spectator podium concourse around the stadium, connected by bridges to the main park. This podium concourse promotes the carnival nature of the event with a perimeter array of spectator facilities, particularly retail and food service, distributed along the natural boundary of the water's edge. During the three hours of an athletics event, spectators are free to move from their seat out onto the podium to visit these colourful clusters of concession pods, and view across the waterways the activities in the adjacent park and venues. The key sustainability criteria of reduce, reuse and recycle were adopted to create a compact, flexible and lightweight design. The main Stadium structure is light and elegant, clearly expressed by the external diagonal articulation of the white tubular steel of the roof and the internal slender black steel supporting the temporary upper seating tier. Between these two frames lies the concourse facade, the full height ribbon sections of the fabric wrap. The black and white seats provide a neutral backdrop for the interior colour of the spectator facilities and pathways, and the animation that spectators with bring to the event. The running track will also be highlighted in a striking colour which will reflect the vibrancy of London in 2012. Architect: Populous