View from a pedestrian bridge to the new Olympic Aquatics Center.
Photographer: Salem Mostefaoui / Courtesy of Ateliers 2/3/4
Why the Paris Olympics Will Be a Modest Showcase of Wood Architecture
Seeking to boost sustainability rather than build grand monuments as host of the 2024 Summer Games, Paris has turned to flexible, reusable timber.
There’s something highly unusual about the new Olympic Aquatics Center on the outskirts of Paris. It’s not just the building’s striking form, with its massive, Pringle-shaped solar roof. It’s not solely that the 5,000-seat venue, constructed mainly from wood, was pieced together like a Lego set.
It’s also the fact that the center, designed by architecture firms Ateliers 2/3/4/ and VenhoevenCS, will be the main architectural icon for a Summer Games that is actively trying not to build them.