PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS
AND PARALYMPICS GAMES
ATHLETES VILLAGE
MANUAL OF URBAN DESIGN
RESEARCH
RE–006
In the summer of 2024, Paris hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games. For four years, from the city’s bid in 2016 to the start of construction in 2020, Perrault Architecture was the lead architect for the project management consortium, chief urban planner and, as such, designer of the Athletes’ Village, which was built by the Société de livraison des ouvrages olympiques (SOLIDEO).
In July 2024, the Village hosted 2,400 homes and 119,000 m² of activities, offices, facilities, and services during the 18 days of the Olympic Games and the 12 days of the Paralympic Games. Designed from the outset with a view to creating a lasting legacy, the Athletes’ Village is gradually being transformed into a new neighborhood for the towns of Saint-Ouen and Saint-Denis, serving the local population. From 2026, it will provide family and student housing, offices, and a new range of shops and services, mainly located on the ground floor, creating a lively and integrated neighborhood in the heart of Seine-Saint-Denis.
Research conducted on the Villages has enabled the design of a neighborhood capable of temporarily accommodating athletes and their delegations, but also to develop a long-term urban vision for the creation, by 2025 and, in the longer term, by 2050, of a part of the city that is rooted in its territory and connected to the metropolis, making the most of its geographical, cultural, and historical assets.
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PROGRAM
Urban development plan located between the Seine and the towns of Saint-Ouen and Saint-Denis, carried out as part of the preparations to welcome athletes to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It includes the construction of 2,800 housing units, 120,000 m² dedicated to activities, offices, facilities, and services, as well as landscaping of the banks of the Seine. The project incorporates the Cité du Cinéma and the former Halle Maxwell into its territory and connects to the Saint-Denis-Pleyel district.
DETAIL
Situation
Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen, France
Year
2024
Status
Consultation, Winning Team
Site area
51 hectares spread across Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen
Project management
Société de Livraison des Equipements Olympiques (SOLIDEO), Paris
Project implementation
Dominique Perrault Architecte
Landscaping
Agence Ter
Design offices
INGEROP, CITEC, URBAN ECO, Jean-Paul Lamoureux, Françoise Folacci, Une Fabrique de la Ville
Interior architect and design
Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost
DESCRIPTION
Through the Athletes’ Village, Perrault Architecture has developed a design approach conceived as a process of revealing what exists, what has existed, and what will exist. Thanks to regular exchanges with SOLIDEO, the services of Plaine Commune, the elected officials of Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen, and Ile Saint-Denis, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Organizing Committee, and the many public and private stakeholders involved in the design of this urban complex, the project has gone beyond the limits of its operational scope in order to better anchor itself in its geography and territory.
READ MORE
This research has highlighted a possible legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, seen as an example of a new way of living in contemporary megacities. The book Un village et son double (A Village and its Double), published in 2024 by Éditions Actar, brings together all the documentation produced between 2018 and 2020, making this neighborhood both a Village for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, an integral part of Greater Paris, and an in-depth reflection on contemporary urban planning. Richly illustrated with photographs, graphics, and plans, it brings together documents whose diversity and richness exceed those commonly accepted in urban planning, thus showcasing the sensitive work produced by the urban planning workshop, a place where some thirty designers and builders came together to build the Athletes’ Village.
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