The designs for a primary electrical substation to be built in the West of the Olympic Park have been revealed following planning permission being secured for the building.

The 132/11kv substation will be a key piece of infrastructure that will supply electricity to the 2.5sq km Olympic Park and the Stratford City development in Games time and in legacy.

The electrical substation will be constructed by Olympic sponsors EDF Energy and has been designed by NORD Architecture, a Glasgow-based practice that won the prestigious Young Architect of the Year Award in 2006.

The substation designs show a dark brick building which is intended to create a sense of solidity appropriate to the building’s role as a key part of the utilities infrastructure in the Olympic Park.

The use of dark brick in the designs also reflects the traditional use of dark brick stock as window and corner details on the former Kings Yard industrial buildings on the site where the new substation will be built, the ODA said.

Crushed materials from the demolition of buildings on the Olympic Park will be reused in the substation construction and the building has also been designed to include a ‘brown roof’ which involves crushed materials laid down on a flat roof which allow species to colonise naturally.

It is claimed that the brown roof will help enhance the ecological value and biodiversity of the Olympic Park site by attracting local wildlife including black redstarts, a rare bird that thrives on brownfield land.

ODA director of infrastructure and utilities, Simon Wright, said: "Design excellence runs through the heart of the project, and the plans we have unveiled for the electrical substation show that we can use innovative and sustainable architecture in functional buildings in the Olympic Park, not just the world-class venues we are building.

"Securing planning permission for the electrical substation is a significant step forwards and having an award-winning, up-and-coming designer on-board will help us further embed world-class architecture in the Olympic Park."

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and Design for London (DfL) supported the design.

The substation will distribute electricity across the Olympic Park and Stratford City site through new electrical networks consisting of more than 100km of electrical cabling.

The electrical networks will also be built by EDF Energy who were appointed through a joint procurement between the ODA and Stratford City Development Limited (SCDL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Westfield.