Sustainable legacy of the 2024 Olympic Games: timber architecture

Like every host city of the Olympic Games, Paris is also trying to create a legacy in the form of a transformation project. In the French capital, sustainability is to take center stage this summer. To this end, Paris is relying on flexible, reusable wood instead of magnificent monuments.

One of the key features of the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics is that not much is actually being built. 95 percent of the required Olympic venues already exist. And the new structures rely heavily on sustainable materials such as reusable wood. The most important architectural symbol of the Paris 2024 Summer Games will be the Olympic Swimming Center in Saint-Denis.

The largest wooden structure in the world is currently located there. It consists of 1,500 cubic meters of European spruce. The architecture firms Ateliers 2/3/4 and VenhoevenCS designed the eye-catching building with its Pringles-shaped solar roof. They assembled the solid, glued timber construction like a Lego set. “We wanted to use as little material as possible, and wood means that we don’t need any additional material to cover structural elements during construction,” says Laure Mériaud, partner at Ateliers 2/3/4/.

Host cities of the Olympic Games are not only hoping for international attention and tourism, but also urban transformation. Barcelona planned a new beach promenade for 1992, Athens expanded its metro system for 2004 and London completely redesigned a derelict site for 2012. In Paris, the aim is to set an example for sustainability. This transformation is less grandiose, but all the more important for that. By only building a few new structures overall, the city is showing that even major events such as the Olympic Games can have a moderate_{carbon footprint}.

The new projects include the Olympic Village in the north of Paris, which is intended to be an eco-district. Here, too, wood takes center stage: the buildings are made of wood and glass and obtain their sustainable energy from heat pumps. The 8,000-seat Champs de Mars arena also consists of a solid glued wood support structure. With a recycled aluminum façade, this building will serve as a center for the Paris basketball team and also offer two public sports halls.

Probably the biggest example of the sustainable 2024 Summer Olympics is the new indoor swimming pool being built in Saint-Denis. The large wooden building will be perhaps the only architectural icon of the Olympic Games. The architects plan to leave the wood in its natural state to add charm. “We don’t have to paint it. It has warmth, it has color and it has a scent. You can smell it when you’re in the pool,” says Laure Mériaud.

Much of the wood used for this indoor swimming pool comes from Alsace, near the German border, where it was also assembled. Using the Lego principle, the architects planned to assemble the prefabricated individual parts in Saint-Denis. The debate focuses not only on wood as a building material, but also on the origin of the building material. It comes from a sustainably managed forest. With its natural insulating properties and carbon storage function, wood is therefore a sustainable, environmentally friendly building material.

Sustainable wood also plays an important role in the other Olympic projects in Paris. For example, all buildings in the Olympic Village that are less than eight storeys high must be made entirely of wood. The material is also to be preferred for taller buildings. The energy that supplies the village should also come from renewable sources and be distributed using heat pumps.

Paris is also thinking about social sustainability: Saint-Denis is an industrial area of Paris where many social problems are prevalent. But by locating both the iconic indoor swimming pool and the Olympic Village in this district, the organizers of the Games hope to bring about sustainable change. Well-known media and service companies are already settling in Saint-Denis to be at the center of the action. This center should continue to have a positive impact even after the Olympic Games. Both the indoor swimming pool and the Olympic Village are to remain and be made available for use by the residents of Saint-Denis.

With the approach of sustainable timber construction and the idea of repairing buildings rather than constructing new ones, France wants to use the Olympic Games as a springboard for a green transformation of the construction industry. The aim is to reduce carbon in the construction sector. With this in mind, existing structures across the country will be retrofitted for various purposes. The games will also serve as a showcase example of how wood can be used in new construction.

France is thus making an important contribution to the EU’s goal of reducing emissions in the region by 55% by 2030. In 2020, there was already a proposal for a law requiring all new public buildings to be made of at least half wood or other ecological materials. Unfortunately, this did not prevail, but it shows that the topic is very important in our neighboring country. Although the French timber construction industry is not as advanced as those in Austria and Germany, for example, France is ahead in the use of ecological materials. The government’s support and the beacon effect of the Olympic Games will help to ensure that wood makes the headlines as a sustainable building material.

You can read more about current timber construction projects here.