The Olympic Stadium for the London 2012 Games could be made out of papier maché, a national newspaper reported yesterday.

The Daily Mail claimed that it had been told by a “source close to the project”, that Team McAlpine – the consortium in charge of building the stadium – had been encouraged to “think temporary” by Olympic chiefs.

This could apparently include using materials such as coated papier maché or weather-resistant fabric on the exterior and could use a similar colour-changing system to the Allianz Arena in Munich.

One of the elements in the brief for the stadium is for it to be reduced from an 80,000-capacity stadium to a 25,000-seater, a concept pioneered by the planners of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.