2023-11-21 18:19:37
Model of the Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture de Montpellier for the Olympic skateboarding and BMX events, within the Archi-Folies exhibition at the Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-Malaquais, in Paris, July 19 2023. JULIEN HELAINE
The La Villette park in Paris will be completely transformed during the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) in Paris, in the summer of 2024. Housed within the Grande Halle, the Club France – which will welcome athletes after the competitions, but also the sponsors, the athletes’ families as well as the general public – will constitute the epicenter of what will be renamed Parc de La Villette – Parc des Nations, during the Games.
Several countries such as Brazil, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Canada and the Czech Republic have already decided to set up their own national Olympic committees in different locations in this green lung in the north-east of Paris. One of these countries could also be hosted by the City of Science and Industry.
On the immense lawn around the Grande Halle, where the open-air cinema is usually held in summer, twenty ephemeral pavilions will be installed, all designed by students from the various French national schools of architecture. Some of them will adjoin the twenty-six “follies” in red enameled sheet metal that the architect Bernard Tschumi created when the park opened in 1987.
Called Archi-Folies 2024, and part of the Cultural Olympiad, this project led to the design of buildings intended to accommodate the various sports federations. Sponsor of this initiative, Bernard Tschumi wished “playful and poetic architectures at the same time”without ruling out inflatable structures, also using wood or raw earth.
“The idea is to bring architecture and sport into dialogue”, explains Sophie-Justine Lieber, general director of La Villette. These future buildings, models of which were presented from July 7 to 21 at the Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris, will be dismantled in October 2024. To be either recovered by sports federations or by local partners.
“A slightly profitable impact” in the accounts
Some 700,000 people are expected throughout the duration of the Games by Club France, adds Sophie-Justine Lieber. Thousands of walkers will stroll through the park, between the Géode, the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, the Philarmonie and the Grande Halle.
Some will not leave the fan zone with the giant screen on which the competitions will be broadcast. It will remain open until 11 p.m. Others will benefit from the activities of the federations which will offer free sports initiations or demonstrations carried out by high-level athletes.
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