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The Athletes’ Village

The Olympic and Paralympic Village is under construction and will be handed over to Paris 2024 starting on 1 March 2024. Besides the goal of providing optimal accommodation for athletes, when the Games are over the Village will become a part of the surrounding city, for people in Seine-Saint-Denis, and mirror the exemplary environmental standards that Paris 2024 intends to meet.

The various consortiums tasked with building the Olympic and Paralympic Village submitted their bids to SOLIDEO (the public organisation responsible for delivering the facilities for the Games) during a call for tenders that started in March 2019. The project selected for the Village reflect the aim to make Paris 2024 a pioneering environmental endeavour while catering for athletes’ requirements during the Games and to local communities’ wants and needs over the long term.

A Village designed with the athletes

It was impossible for Paris 2024 to plan the Olympic and Paralympic Village without asking the people who will be using it – their athletes themselves – for their insight. Athletes from all continents therefore shared their vision of the ideal Village, pooling a wealth of experience and stories. A manifesto was prepared under the supervision of the Paris 2024 Athletes’ Commission, summing up their comments and requirements. It will shape the amenities at this Village designed for as much as by athletes.

Olympic and Paralympic Village facts and figures

The Village stretches across three towns: Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine and L’Île-Saint-Denis. It will house 14,500 athletes and their staff during the Olympic Games then 9,000 athletes and their staff during the Paralympic Games. As many as 60,000 meals will be served per day and a medical centre will be open 24/7 for athletes. During the Paralympic Games, a free-of-charge orthotic, prosthetic and wheelchair repair centre will also be open. After the Games, in 2025, the neighbourhood will feature:

  • 52 hectares, eq. 70 football pitches
  • Benefiting 6,000 residents
  • More than 2,800 new housing units (2,000 family homes, 800 residence units) 
  • 1 student residence
  • 1 hotel
  • 2 new schools
  • 6 hectares of green spaces incl. a public park in the centre of the neighbourhood
  • Planted areas for pedestrians and non-motorised vehicles
  • 120,000 sqm of offices, other business premises and services, for 6,000 employees
  • 3,200 sqm of neighbourhood shops

The city of the future as legacy

Besides the buildings’ modern looks, it was the extent to which bidders’ pledges matched Paris 2024’s aims regarding carbon emissions and financial stewardship that decided which ones were awarded contracts at the end of the tendering process. The Village will meet Paris 2024’s and SOLIDEO’s standards for environmental excellence, in order to build and deliver a 2050-ready neighbourhood in the city:

It will help to protect and foster biodiversity (with rooftops built to house insects and birds, enclosures with openings for small animals to pass through, etc.). Plant substrates using local resources will be produced; 8,876 trees and bushes will be planted in all the Village’s public areas, providing a wide choice of vegetation to attract a variety of species.

The carbon-emissions budget will help to achieve the goals in Paris’s Climate Plan and stay on track for carbon neutrality in 2050, for example using wood and other organically-sourced materials. The buildings are designed to be energy-efficient and will consume their own energy, for instance from geothermal and solar systems.

– It will help to adapt the city to the climate in 2050, with features that will accommodate and mitigate the effects of climate change (surfacings, plants and water in public areas, etc.). The urban planning will provide a natural cooling system in the buildings, making the flats comfortable in summer, in particular with architectures that facilitate air flow between buildings.

A universal accessibility strategy, adopted on 22 March 2019, will enable everyone to enjoy the city: all the Village’s homes will be accessible for persons with reduced mobility.

A bridge over the Seine, exclusively for soft mobility, will link Île-Saint-Denis and Saint-Denis, enabling mixed use and providing a range of services on a daily basis.

The countdown has started

Construction work kicked off at the beginning of 2021 and will be completed by Q4 2023.

In preparation for the Games, Paris 2024’s role will be to monitor construction in Village configuration, to address the athletes’ requirements. The temporary facilities, required to address the specific requirements associated with a village’s operations during the Games (logistics and operational capabilities, the athletes’ restaurant, etc.) will complete the facilities left behind as legacy.

In November 2024, once the Games are over, the operators will begin a reversibility phase. The circular economy’s principles will be applied through a strategy to reuse materials during deconstruction. They will hand over a new, eco-responsible, functional neighbourhood, which will blend into the city of the future, to the community in 2025.

© Paris 2024/Solideo-Illumens- Dominique Perrault/Ingérop/Une Fabrique de la Ville/VITEC/Agence TER/UrbanEco/Jean-Paul Lamoureux