Paris Olympics 2024: Eco-friendly athletes' village ready on time, President Macron to inaugurate the facility

The organisers of the Paris Olympics are set to take the keys for the athletes’ village on Thursday a day ahead of schedule, reinforcing growing confidence that they will be ready for the Games. An inauguration ceremony at the sprawling site in northern Paris will see President Emmanuel Macron attend as guest of honour, alongside chief organiser Tony Estanguet and a smattering of French athletes.

The roughly 40 low-rise tower blocks will house around 14,000 people over the course of the Olympics, which kick off on July 26, and another 9,000 during the Paralympics afterwards.

The handover target of March 1 for the crucial piece of Olympics infrastructure has been respected, demonstrating that France was “capable of delivering on time”, an advisor to Macron told reporters this week.

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“Deadlines have been met despite the complexity of the site… Covid and despite the war in Ukraine,” the advisor added on condition of anonymity.

Only 3.0 percent above budget when inflation is taken into account, according to Macron’s office, the village is also seen as further evidence that the Paris Games can avoid the pitfalls of past editions.

Wasteful over-spending and extravagant “white elephant” infrastructure have tarnished the reputation of the Olympics, most recently in Rio in 2016 where the village fell vacant afterwards.

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Concerns about climate change have also led activists to target the enormous carbon footprint of an event that brings together athletes and spectators from across the world every four years.

Opinion polls suggest a majority of French people still support the Paris Games, though expensive tickets, political bickering and disruption to life in the capital have soured the mood recently.

Regeneration 

Paris organisers see themselves as promoting a new “sober” model for the Olympics, with a focus on using existing sporting infrastructure, as well as promoting recycling, re-use and innovative new technologies.

Paris’ bid promised that the city would use existing or temporary sporting infrastructure for 97 percent of its needs and its carbon emissions would be half of previous editions.

The village is the single biggest new-build project, located on a site by the river Seine that is a focus for regeneration efforts in the economically deprived Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.

“We made a promise: that we would create above all a new neighbourhood for Seine-Saint-Denis rather than an Olympic and Paralympic village,” said Laurent Michaud, director of village operations for the organising committee.

The tower blocks containing the 2,800 apartments each have a different design, which is intended to underline the “architectural variety” that is seen as a marker of European cities.

Roughly two thirds of the 2.0-billion-euro ($2.2 billion) budget has been provided by private real estate companies.

After the Olympics, most of the accomodation will be sold off to private homeowners, while at least a third will be used for public housing, and others will become student accommodation.

‘Model village’? 

Reducing the carbon footprint was a goal in choosing to use natural materials and resources.

“Most of the buildings have either the structure or the flooring made out of wood," Krysinski said.

Naturally cold water from 70 meters deep will be circulated in the flooring of the buildings to reduce the temperature in the apartments — most welcome in stifling August heat, and especially with no air conditioning due to environmental concerns.

After both the Games, 6,000 people will use the apartments in a new residential area. It will feature two schools, an anti-noise wall to shield it from a busy highway, bike lanes to Paris, and a new bridge crossing the Seine River.

Office space will also be used by 6,000 workers.

Organisers are set to spend the next four months fitting out the village with more than 300,000 items of furniture and decoration.

With agency inputs