A little less than five months before the start of
Paris 2024 , the
Olympic Village
was inaugurated,
which will be the home of the athletes during the Games in the French capital.
Located near the
Stade de France
, which will host the athletics events, on a 52-hectare plot of land between Saint-Denis, the island of Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen, north of the host city, that kind of "private neighborhood" It is made up of 82 apartment blocks with a special characteristic: they do not have air conditioning.
Aiming at the goal of holding the most sustainable Games in history, the organization opted for a special technology that takes advantage of natural resources to keep athletes cool, even in the event of a heat wave.
In addition to having designed the buildings by orienting their facades so that they do not receive too much sunlight in summer, Paris will resort to an underground cooling system, which was already used in the
Louvre Museum
during the summer of last year to mitigate the suffocating temperatures that registered in Europe.
This will ensure that the temperature in the apartments does not exceed 26° C during the night.
Laurent Michaud
, the director of the Villa, said that tests were carried out in the rooms on the highest floors and most exposed to the sun, with very positive results.
"Despite outdoor temperatures reaching 41°C, we had temperatures of 28° in most of these rooms," Michaud explained.
In addition, he assured that the organization will have portable air conditioning systems available to install in case it is not possible to keep temperatures low or if the health or well-being of the athletes requires it.
With you, the Olympic Village of #Paris2024... 🚁👀
🏙️ 82 buildings, 3,000 apartments and 7,200 rooms.
🏠 Home to 10,000 Olympic and 4,500 Paralympic athletes during the Games.#Olympic Games |
📹 ©️ SOLIDEO – Dronepress pic.twitter.com/16Xcp7gv0S
— The Olympic Games (@juegosolimpicos) February 29, 2024
The Villa, which took seven years to build, has 3 thousand apartments and 7,200 rooms.
It will also have leisure areas, 7.5 hectares of green spaces and walks on the banks of the Seine River.
Athlete amenities will include a 24-hour restaurant with nearly 3,200 seats, serving dishes from six culinary specialties, including Italian, Asian and French;
an alcohol-free bar;
a supermarket;
a policestation;
a beauty salon;
A gym;
a post office and a multi-denominational worship center.
And a polyclinic that would also operate all day and all night.
Athletes will be able to move around the grounds on bicycles or in electric vans that will circulate constantly.
Once construction is complete, the organizing committee will now have five months to arrange the furniture, decorate the units and get everything ready before the scheduled arrival date of the first athletes, July 18.
The Villa will have 3 thousand apartments and 7,200 rooms.
Photo EFE/EPA/LUDOVIC MARIN
"The Villa is an example of the city of the future. Here we see the buildings that will be built in 2040, capable of withstanding the climatic conditions of 2050, both cold and heat," commented the French president,
Emmanuel Macron
, who during the opening ceremony presented a symbolic key to the complex to the head of the organizing committee,
Tony Estanguet
.
"They can be proud. They kept their promises, both in terms of deadlines and budget," Macron added.
"We are a country of builders and despite the Covid crisis, two years of inflation, the war in Ukraine, we have achieved the largest project in France in record time."
He also highlighted the innovation in the materials used, which allowed polluting emissions to be reduced by 47 percent during construction.
The Olympic Village 🏡
How it's started / How it's going !
pic.twitter.com/qnY179mjp8
— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) February 29, 2024
The Village is the largest project built from scratch for the Paris Games, since most of the competition venues will be facilities that already existed and that, at most, had to be renovated for the event.
It was built with an investment of 646 million euros of public funds from the French government, added to the contribution of the largest real estate companies in France, which developed different areas of the property.
After the Olympic and
Paralympic
Games (August 28 to September 8), the building complex will be converted into a new modern city.
A third of the 2,800 apartments will be sold to private owners, a third will be used for social housing and the rest will be rented.
The area in which the Villa was installed is an industrial area, one of the poorest and with the highest crime rate in continental France, but the new constructions, which stand out for their diversity in color and design, promise to revitalize it and transform it into a residential area.
"Without the Games all these homes that will remain would not have been created," Macron said.
"The Games create inconvenience during the years of preparation, but they leave a legacy and create wealth in the territory."
With information from EFE