Paris 2024 Olympics diary, week two: ‘The reuse story is obvious everywhere’

This summer’s Olympiad might be the most temporary yet, with existing Parisian landmarks put to use as backdrops for beach volleyball, equestrian events and, for the first time, an opening ceremony outside a stadium.

But what is it like being there? For the second and final week of the Olympics, the AJ asked architects on the ground – including those involved with Paris 2024 and previous summer Olympics – to share their experiences.

WilkinsonEyre director Sebastien Ricard and Woo Architects’ Mathilde Spriet and Carolina Lopez send their postcards from inside the global sporting showcase.

Wednesday 31 July – Club France and Beach Volleyball at the Eiffel Tower Stadium

Sebastien Ricard Today’s events started at the Club France, where The Parc de la Villette has been transformed into an Olympic ‘theme park’. We finally found ourselves in the thick of the atmosphere that I remembered from London 2012 and had worried I wouldn’t find in Paris.

Mainly built in the 1980s, la Villette was part of Francois Mitterrand’s Grands Projets. It was home to a series of amazing red pavilions designed by Bernard Tschumi, including the National Music Conservatoire, as well as the Cité de la Musique by Christian de Portzamparc, which was completed around the same period.

For the Games, they have built interesting temporary pavilions in timber – some even using straw walls. But is this really what sustainability is about? Will they be reused or recycled? Is it really sustainable thinking or superficial greenwashing? One of them is even designed to look like it is made of cardboard when it is actually made from timber and corrugated metal sheet, mimicking corrugated cardboard. Why?

Having said that, the park is great. This is the Olympic spirit!

In the evening, my wife and I went to the Eiffel Tower stadium, a set of temporary stands specifically set up for the beach volleyball. This was the most incredible place where you were able to watch a beach volleyball game with the Eiffel Tower directly in front of you. Totally magical and probably the best venue you could think of, although this had nothing to do with architecture and everything to do with setting.

The rest of the family went to the Grand Palais for an evening of fencing. This is probably the other most amazing venue. Built slightly later than the Crystal Palace, the Grand Palais has been restored specifically for the Olympics and has been fitted with temporary bleachers, extra cooling and stretch fabric to shade the roof glazing. The way the fencers descended the stairs for their game was “incroyable, mais oui, mais oui!”.

Thursday 1 August – Parc Urbain La Concorde

Sebastien Ricard This place is full of memories for me. As a teenager, I used to rollerblade on the Esplanade de la Concorde, bringing my own cones and doing some slaloms! Seeing it now being used to host Olympic ‘street sports’ is so cool.

I let my kids go on their own to this event and they loved it – ‘holding’ the obelix between their hands and seeing street artists painting the walls. It is great to see that the place was attracting young adults and teens.

Source:Sebastien Ricard

Friday 2 August – Invalides

Sebastien Ricard Another venue today – off to the Invalides to see archery. Again, we were totally blown away by the setting – on one side the Invalides, on the other, the Grand Palais. Totally stunning. Same ritual, with barely any queue to go in and no queue in the tube when leaving. Maybe they should have the Olympic Games permanently in Paris.

Archery is a sport we knew nothing about, and we had to learn the rules on the day, discovering how skilful you need to be to perform at high level. Well done athletes, you really impressed us!'

Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 August – Turning around the Aquatics Centre

Mathilde Spriet Woo Architects played a key part in designing, developing, and delivering the Aquatics Centre, one of just two permanent legacy projects alongside the La Chapelle Adidas Arena.

Throughout the Games, our role has been to oversee maintenance and ensure the venue operates smoothly. From the outset, we faced significant challenges, particularly regarding tight time schedules and spatial constraints.’

Last week, a major task was transitioning the venue from hosting water polo and diving to artistic swimming and diving. We had just an eight-hour window overnight to remove platforms and make the necessary adjustments for the next phase.

Monday 5 August – Paris La Defense Arena: Water Polo

Sebastien Ricard This is how we planned our Games – to get to as many venues in as possible, rediscover Paris and its surroundings and make sure the kids would also discover various facets of Paris. As such, we weren’t fussy about where our seats were located. We just wanted to make sure we could fully experience the Games. We haven’t been disappointed.

Unfortunately, La Defense has always struggled to find its ‘soul’. La Defense Arena forms part of more recent additions to the quarter, which attempt to encourage mixed-use activity, combining communal spaces, retail and residential properties. The arena, completed more than 10 years ago – again, not a venue conceived for the Games – is surrounded by a dense urban environment and home to the Racing 92 Rugby Club.

Inside, the venue has been split to reduce its size with a swimming pool built in one half to host some swimming events as well as the water polo. How clever – no need for a new venue. Instead, adaptability. They have inserted some stands in the middle of the normal-sized rugby pitch, creating a well-proportioned tight venue. The atmosphere was electric and, again, we really enjoyed watching another sport we didn’t know much about beforehand.'

Tuesday 6 August – Arena Pierre Mauroy, Lille

Sebastien Ricard On the way back to London, we stopped in Lille to watch some handball. Great to spread the Games beyond Paris, ensuring that the rest of France enjoys them.Here we found yet another example of reusing and transforming a venue which was built way before the Games in 2012.

This stadium was designed for the local football team but, similarly to Paris La Defense Arena, has been split in half for the Games with stands inserted into the middle to create a smaller venue: around 27,000 capacity as opposed to the usual capacity of  around 50,000. This arrangement created a tight and welcoming venue. A lot of people from the north of France came, proud to be part of the Games.

Wednesday 7 – Aquatics: cooling down

Carolina Lopez One of the most exciting elements has been creating the warm-up pool at the Aquatics Centre. It’s an engineering wonder, and I’ve followed its development from scratch. It’s incredible — a temporary, elevated, steel-structure pool measuring 50 x 25m and 3m deep, built in just five weeks.

‘We’ve been lucky enough to witness various aquatics competitions and other sports including athletics, boxing, rugby, archery and climbing. With the warm-up pool not needed for the Paralympics, our next significant task is dismantling it and all temporary infrastructures after the artistic swimming final. This process will start late Saturday night and promises to be an exciting project to be part of.

The verdict 

Sebastien Ricard For us, Paris 2024 has symbolised the rediscovery of Paris, showcasing how beautiful a city it is. The Games have offered visitors the opportunity to wander around special places and see them framed in a unique way, rather than just going to one ‘Olympic Park’ and seeing a lot of sports.

'The reuse story is obvious everywhere and was the right approach. Often when cities secure the Olympic Games, they spend huge amounts of money and resources creating immense new venues which often never get reused at their maximum capacity. In Paris, the opposite is true, with most of the existing venues having been reduced in capacity to accommodate the Olympics – handball or basketball size pitches, or a 50m swimming pool in a football stadium.

A sign of the times, efficiency and sustainability bring with them a lot of clever thinking and creativity. What made each place special was the setting rather than any new high-tech venue. As an architect, it gave me a lot to think about for the future in terms of how to create poetic architecture and atmosphere by reusing and harnessing the amazing potential that any city has.

In French we say: l’Art de tricoter avec le patrimoine existant pour créer la magie, which roughly translates as: the art of knitting with existing heritage to create magic.