Designs for a colourful handball arena designed by Make Architects with PTW and Arup for the 2012 Olympics have been released by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA).

BD first revealed details of the designs in August this year to a largely disappointed response from BD readers [Read the comments here]

The copper-clad 2,743 sq m arena, which will change colour with age, is encircled by glazing at concourse level so that visitors to the Olympic Park can see inside. The interior is brightly coloured with 100 light pipes in the ceiling to allow natural light inside.

It will become a multi-sports facility after the games for sports including basketball, handball, badminton and netball, with retractable seating for 6,000 spectators.

During the games it will have up to 7,000 seats and host the handball preliminaries and quarter finals, as well as the Modern Pentathlon disciplines of fencing and shooting.

Ricky Burdett, ODA principal design advisor, said: "The Handball Arena occupies an important urban lynchpin, acting as a bridge between the Olympic Park and the existing urban neighbourhoods to the west in Hackney and Tower Hamlets.

"The design is a bold and refined architectural statement: a rectilinear volume raised on a platform that addresses the street and a large podium overlooking the park. At night the internal activities will be visible through the horizontal glazed slot that defines the edge of the building."