David Taylor It's 10 years since the Olympics, as you know, and I wondered if you could answer me a few questions on that, really. The first of which being how your work at the Velodrome in the Velo Park came about in the first place. And secondly, how significant you think it's been in the wider regeneration of that whole area?

Mike TaylorWell, it was an architectural competition, which was obviously highly fought over; a fantastic project to work on. We were obviously thrilled to win it and it was a dream come true for me to work on the Velodrome having watched track cycling as a young boy in Manchester at the Fallowfield track. I think the significance of it in the park is really important, because it was building on the site of the old Eastway cycle circuit, which was a sort of hidden away location for cyclists with an outdoor circuit where even Eddie Merckx had come and raced on that track. So it had history. It had really importantly a kind of cycling community use as well. So, it was a really important venue for cyclists and that's how the Velodrome ended up in that particular spot in the Olympic Park - which is somewhat marginal on the edge of the park, by the A12. I think it's a really important building for cycling, because it's put London on the map for a class one UCI venue, 6000 seats, and we've held World Championships there as well as the Olympics. And that's fantastic to have in the capital city. And I think in terms of the regeneration that's happened around it, it's great to see that the park looks really busy and well occupied. For me personally, it's not just about the housing and the park as public amenity, it's about the legacy of the Games, and keeping sport visible and active in the park. We put a lot of effort into designing the trails and the road circuit around the Velodrome, so it wasn't just the Velodrome surrounded by a car park as they usually are, but it was a velodrome in a cycle Park.

David Taylor I remember talking to you a while back about air tightness and temperature, specifically; what were the most difficult things about the design, if it wasn't those two things, and the build? What was the most challenging aspect?

Mike Taylor Well, we always set out to make a building that felt like it was about cycling. So, we took the idea of making the building in the same way you might design a bike, designing the building in the same way you might think and design a bike. It was based on efficiency lightness, components; a very engineering-inspired vision for making a building. And by wrapping the seats tightly around the track, which you can do, and then wrapping the building tightly around the seats, you get this really close fit between the geometry of the track, if you like, and the geometry on the outside of the building. The idea was that the building would speak of cycling, and it would look dynamic and active and in some way feel like the track itself, which I think we managed to achieve. The real challenge on the job was obviously controlling cost and keeping embodied carbon and running costs down. So, we put lots of thought into that to make it, well, as slimline and as small as possible, because that reduces the quantity of materials in it. It also reduces the volume of air inside you've got to heat, which affects the running costs, and we managed to bring lots of natural light in there. We did what we could, in the knowledge that, since 1948, when London last hosted the Games, looking back at it, 50% of the velodromes that have been used in the Olympics have now gone to ruin because it is not a sport, unlike say football, that generates large amounts of cash. So running costs are important, as well as long-term sustainability and reducing the amount of embodied carbon.

David Taylor What's given you the most pleasure about the design? And how did you feel when you first went into it during an event

Mike Taylor You do get a fantastic buzz when you go in there. It's got a gladiatorial type of feel. it's an arena with an incredible focus on the track. And the track is such a beautiful thing. It is the most amazing bit of sculpture. And I think just to walk in, it does still lift my spirits to go in there. I think what's been most gratifying is that the building is really well loved. And people have a really strong affection for it and they appreciate it. And that's always nice as an architect to get that feedback.

David Taylor Why do you think that is? Is it something to do with timber, by any stretch of the imagination?

Mike Taylor Um. It's probably a combination. It is a sculptural object that's got a lot of finesse to and a lot of power and energy as well. I think it does do what we said, which is it sort of speaks cycling on the outside. It's also an open building - we've got that ring of glass in so you can walk up to it and look in. Most velodromes are closed boxes. So, the idea was it met all its internal functions but still opened up to the outside, both looking in and looking out. I guess ultimately, whatever you say about the building, people like buildings more if they think they're beautiful. And the sculptural dynamism of that shape, sitting on the sort of plinth of the concourse and the grass just seems to work; people like it.

David Taylor You're a cyclist yourself. I'm wondering how many times you've ridden the boards inside there?

Mike Taylor I've ridden around a few times. I have since then been lucky enough to ride round the Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan. And that's an interesting parallel. That's one of the great tracks in the world – 400 meters, built in 1935; sort of futuristic design. It's even got 9000 seats; it's covered but not an enclosed building. And I was talking to Italian cyclists in a lecture at Milan Polytechnic last week, and they were lamenting the fact they haven't got a Class One UCI covered 250-metre velodrome in Italy, which is where you can have World Championships and World Cups and everything. And that is from a nation that now are the current Men's Team Pursuit champions from the Tokyo Olympics, with the world record. Seems incredible they don't have a track, so it just in a way reinforces how lucky we are in London now to have a 6000-seat velodrome.

David Taylor So, did you pick up a job whilst you were out there to do one to rectify that? (laughs)

Mike Taylor No. We've looked at lots of velodromes in other countries and other cities. And nothing has ever come off. And I think in some ways, it's territorial. It's good to have a home architect designing your own venue.

David Taylor I wondered also, about your views about the whole London 2012 project and the legacy thereof. How do you think we did?

Mike Taylor I think we did really well. From Danny Boyle's absolutely brilliant opening ceremony, which, when you look back on it is quite emotional, almost, to think what we've been through since then. And his almost prophetic celebration of the NHS – which didn't go necessarily well with everybody, including the political classes at the time. But my word, he really pulled off something extraordinary, I think, with that opening ceremony, and the cultural references, and the subtle, not too bombastic or pious way he did it; quite humorous, I think was absolutely brilliant and inspirational. And, you've got to remember, we were coming after Beijing, which had had the most enormous kind of fanfare of an opening ceremony and the grandiosity of the bird's nest stadium. We had to pitch it at something more thoughtful, more sustainable, and more culturally relevant to Europe and to Britain. And I think Danny Boyle did that brilliantly, I think what was good about the Olympic Park and the wider infrastructure of the Games, was not making all the buildings into monuments, and accepting temporary venues would be cleared away. And just keeping a few pieces that were dedicated to their one sport; I think that's paid off. And I think the design of the park has paid off. At the time, to be honest, I thought the Olympic Village was a little bit over-scaled, and could have been more broken down. But seeing how we're building in London now, at places like Nine Elms, the Olympic Park looks relatively modest. And I think as people move in, and those spaces become occupied, it's a great new quarter for London. And if you go back to the very origins of the pitch for 2012, we were looking to redistribute wealth from the west to the east and to build up. There's that great Abercrombie Plan that shows how you could bring prosperity to that part of Lee Valley and the East End. How we could transfer prosperity to the east, and in a way, we have as a city and country been successful at that.

David Taylor We could call it Levelling East or Levelling Sideways, In today's parlance, couldn't we? (laughs)

Mike Taylor (laughs) I'm not going to use that expression...

David Taylor (laughs) So, any last thoughts about your involvement here? And also, in terms of how the regeneration of that quarter has stacked up against other cities worldwide? Do you think we sort of lead the way in terms of legacies?

Mike Taylor I don't necessarily think so. I mean, for me, the high point in Olympic design was 40 years before ours, in 1972, with the Munich Olympics. You go back and look at that. And the energy and creativity and that architecture is just extraordinary. And to think that was 40 years before us. So I think we should be relatively modest in our assessment when you look at that. And I think if there was a criticism of the London Games, it was that there wasn't a more interconnectedness of the design. Because everything was sort of broken into parcels and elements and the creativity came to each one of those. But I think, looking back at Munich, it was fantastic how everything from the logo and the buildings all felt one of a piece. And even their Olympic Village, with all the issues that happened there, is fascinating to go back and look at. So I think the thing I'd like to just think about, and because we were designing the cycling venue, and because we now had this fantastically successful track cycling team, we inherited a responsibility to deliver success to the British team, in London. Because when you look when you look at it like that the countries hosting the Games are somewhat in competition with each other, to get world records and have successful games. And the home team always needs to perform to make it popular and bring the crowd on in that country. And you know, we did that. And I think the other the other thing, therefore, is, what did this project and the Games do for cycling in London and in Britain, given we were so successful? I think it was absolutely fantastic, wasn't it, to watch Chris Hoy win his Keirin?

David Taylor Yeah, yeah, amazing.

Mike Taylor And then, Dave Brailsford has taken the brave decision to put Jason Kenny in the sprint and drop Chris Hoy for that. And he got the gold medal in that. And of course, he won the men's team pursuit, which is somehow the Blue-Ribbon event in terms of a nation's status as the preeminent cycling nation. And the women's team pursuit won gold as well. So that was fantastic. And actually, you always get this tail off after your home games where the performance of the home team starts to decline inevitably. But actually, you know, in 2018, we had Geraint Thomas won the Tour de France, Chris Froome won the Giro and Simon Yates won the Vuelta. If you'd gone back 20 years and put money on that (laughs), I mean, it was unimaginable three riders simultaneously from Britain, winning the Grand Tours. And we've done well in the world championships, we've got all these new riders coming through. So at the elite level, we have managed to maintain a level of success that's not far off what we were getting then, at our absolute peak. And I think for me, as a commuter, and just someone interested in cycling generally, I'm really interested in the trickle-down effect from all of those successful professional cyclists into encouraging people to cycle in our city. I think the contribution of the Velodrome to London is about encouraging cycling, directly and indirectly, and getting more cars off our roads and getting more people into cycling, which is a no-brainer. It's healthy, it's sustainable. It's non-polluting. And the more we can encourage it, the better.

David Taylor Hear, hear. Absolutely. And congratulations! It doesn't look a day older than it did when it opened as far as I'm concerned. But what is the life of a building like that? I mean, obviously you have to maintain the track, for example, but everything else so are you expecting it to last for 40, 50, 60 years?

Mike Taylor Well, a standard design life in building spec terms is 60 years. But obviously, your concrete and everything lasts longer, your double-glazed units start to go after 25-30 years. There's no reason that building, well maintained, can't last a lot longer. The track will wear out. What actually happens – and they've replaced it at Manchester already – is they get a chainsaw and cut up the boards between the trusses. They pull it out with a crowbar in low tech fashion and roll up the track by pulling the nails out, because the track is 40mm by 40mm Siberian pine, nailed onto timber trusses. You rip it all out. And then you lay new boards on when it starts to wear out. So, at some point, that will have to happen when it's had too much use. Other than that, we just need to make sure that the timber cladding on the outside gets a bit of TLC every so often. And it can go on and on.

David Taylor Well, congratulations again. It's great. We all love it (laughs)

Mike Taylor Well, I think it's very nice to look back at 2012 from 2022. Because there's a sort of warm glow of everything we all achieved and how the nation felt at that time. And you know, life is not quite as charming and easy these days for many people, is it? So it's a nice memory to have. Just one final, final point, if I may? We’re concerned that the arrival of Lee Valley Velodrome could signal the end of the historic Herne Hill venue, which was getting run down and was having trouble renewing its lease. We got involved with that campaign and helped deliver their refurbishment and designed the new pavilion. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength with a large increase in the number of riders, a packed programme of training and racing and all made possible by a group of passionate volunteers who coach and run the venue. The larger track with less steep banking is a better place to learn to ride and has a constant stream of talented youngsters coming through the system like Ethan Hayter, who is the current World Omnium Champion.

David Taylor Absolutely. Thanks for your time. Mike