Step Inside the Brand New 2024 Olympics Aquatics Center
Courtesy of ArchitecturalDigest.com
On the eve of the Paris Games, two architecture firms dive deep into the details of sustainable construction
By Dana Thomas Photography by Cassie Floto Warner
When Paris was selected to host the Summer 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, one of the selling points of the city’s proposal was that it would primarily rely on existing or temporary structures for sporting events, such as the Grand Palais for fencing and tae kwon do, the Stade Roland-Garros for tennis and boxing, and the Stade de France, the country’s national stadium, for athletics, rugby sevens, and closing ceremonies. Beyond an open-air climbing facility, only one new permanent sports venue has been constructed specifically for the Games: the Aquatics Centre, an eco-responsible natatorium in the suburb of Saint-Denis that will host diving, water polo, and artistic-swimming competitions.
Codesigned by the Amsterdam-based firm VenhoevenCS and the French architects Ateliers 2/3/4/, the Aquatics Centre is a handsome timber structure with a dramatic swooping roof, set on a 30-acre former industrial site across the A1 highway from the Stade de France. Linking the two stadiums is a new pedestrian bridge, also of the firms’ design. Their work now forms the centerpiece for La Plaine Saulnier, an urban district that will be built in the coming years by the Grand Paris Metropolis, the inter-municipality that connects the city and its surrounding suburbs.
Inside the Aquatics Centre, there is a 50-meter Olympic-size pool, a 25-meter short-course pool, a recreational pool, and a diving pool, all conceived to “consume less, consume better,” the project leaders Cécilia Gross of VenhoevenCS and Laure Mériaud of Ateliers 2/3/4/ state. Their eco-conscious approach was key to winning the commission. Organizers of the Paris Games have set an ambitious greenhouse gas emissions target that is half of what the 2012 Olympics in London generated.
To do their part, the design team limited traditional structural materials, such as steel, the production of which is highly polluting, in favor of more eco-friendly spruce and Douglas fir, from Finland and France. (Researchers have found that wood stores carbon even after it’s been harvested.) For the Aquatics Centre, the roof also provides optimal acoustics, Gross explained during a tour of the site in March. And the beams can be repurposed if the building is ever razed. “We asked ourselves, ‘What is the best choice for what we have to achieve?’ ” Gross said. Their answer: “Finding the right balance.”
The center’s swooping roof, inspired by concave precedents like Álvaro Siza’s Pavilhão de Portugal at the 1998 Expo in Lisbon, is a parametric feat, “dictated by the heating of the pool,” Gross said. Above the stands on the arena’s north and south sides, the ceiling soars, then it dives low over the lanes, slashing the interior volume by some 50 percent, relative to a standard beam approach. “We succeeded in having a harmonious, natural movement,” Mériaud said proudly, as she regarded it from the esplanade. The trough-like canopy also allows for easy capture of rainwater for irrigation. On top, there is an acre-plus solar farm, which supplies 20 percent of the building’s energy.
Pools were placed aboveground to avoid digging deep foundations and trucking soil off-site, and to stabilize water temperature. (It’s far easier to control the temperature of the air indoors than the earth outdoors, which changes with the weather.) There is a modulating divider that can split the main pool into a variety of configurations, both during and after the games. And the diving pool was scaled down to reduce the total water by 25 percent. “The artisans who painted the black lane lines on the bottom without visible distortion are really Michelangelos,” Gross said with a
laugh. Half the water is recovered and 40 percent reused.
Post-Olympics, the Aquatics Centre will become, Mériaud said, “an urban center for tomorrow,” serving as a locus for community sports, as well as a training hub for the French swimming federation. Half of the 6,000 seats are permanent and made from recycled plastic. The others are temporary and will be removed to make way for three paddle-tennis courts, though the stands can be restored to full capacity for world-class swimming events, like the European Championships, which will be held at the center in 2026. In addition, there is a children’s aqua-park; a fitness center with a gym and yoga studio; a bouldering and rock-climbing hall; and a restaurant.
Outside, the esplanade, designed by Ateliers 2/3/4/, will become a swath of green, with soccer fields, pathways, park benches, and hundreds of locally sourced pine, oak, and maple trees—many already a mature size. “We wanted to create a place where people come to meet and connect around sports,” Gross said. Mériaud concurred: “The dream of Saint-Denis is to have aquatic champions coming from this Centre.” Maybe, one day, even an Olympian.
The newly designed Olympic aquatics center appears in AD’s July/August 2024 issue. To see the project in print, subscribe to AD.
