Championing sustainability: How Paris 2024 is reshaping the future of the Olympics

Paris 2024 - Olympic Seine  Paris 2024  Florian Hulleu.jpg

Source: Paris 2024/Florian Hulleu

The Paris Olympics is embracing an approach pioneered by London in 2012 and taken to the next level, utilising existing venues and temporary structures as much as possible, Ben Flatman writes

The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, starting in Paris this month, mark the end of an architectural era. Largely gone are the starchitects and quintessentially French grands projets. And in their place are existing and temporary venues. 

London 2012 pioneered the use of temporary venues but was still dominated by a new stadium and Olympic Park in east London. Even the last games in Tokyo had a landmark new stadium – not untypically marred by controversy when Zaha Hadid’s design was dropped as too expensive and repalced by another by Kengo Kuma.

This time, however, the Stade de France, built to host the 1998 football World Cup, will be pressed into action as the main Olympic venue. It is a reflection of how far arguably the world’s biggest sporting event has moved towards more flexible and sustainable venues.

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