Construction Maison

Lee Valley VeloPark Standing on the tenth floor of TfL's soon-to-be offices in the heart of the Olympic Park, there's a panoramic view of Stratford and the rest of London beyond. The landscape is littered with cranes and unfinished tower blocks like the one we're standing in. Among them there's a sprinkling of former Olympic venues that provided the catalyst for this re-imagined Stratford to occur. Or did they? A huge slice of the changes in the Olympic Park comes from International Quarter London . IQL is run by property development company Lendlease , and totals up to 4 million sq ft of offices. Lendlease also built the luxury apartment complex Glasshouse Gardens in the Olympic Park and, originally built the Athletes' Village for the games. The team here knows intimately the rapid changes the area has undergone. Kevin Chapman, head of offices at IQL, tells us, "what we've had to do is bring the commercial office element into the Olympic Park as part...

'Your home is wherever you stop and that's what's really, really cool about that whole idea' Rain patters on the roof of John Salhany's 2006 Mercedes Sprinter van as he points out the half-finished ceiling of tongue-and- groove pine paneling that will eventually continue down the walls over layers of plywood and reflective insulation. Items strewn in the hollowed back include a dusty climbing rope , a road bike and a six-pack of Upslope Brewing Company 's Citra Pale Ale . All his essentials will soon have their places once the van build-out is complete, when Salhany will have a bed big enough to accommodate all 6 feet, 2 inches of him, a countertop with a sink and drawers, and maybe even a backsplash with the cutout of the mountains — amenities like that of a house. "I have a lot of friends who are buying houses right now who are just getting to that age, all on the East Coast and I'm just like, how do you guys know where you want to live?" said...