Faced with concerns about the vast emissions caused by the Games—from the construction work, the air miles and catering—Paris 2024 organisers set out to make the village as environmentally friendly as possible
The athletes' village for the Paris Olympics, contains a host of innovations intended to make it a model of low-carbon construction. Photography Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt / AFP©
The athletes' village for the Paris Olympics, which welcomed its first athletes on Thursday, contains a host of innovations intended to make it a model of low-carbon construction.
Faced with concerns about the vast emissions caused by the Games—from the construction work, the air miles and catering—Paris 2024 organisers set out to make the village as environmentally friendly as possible.
With its roughly 40 different blocks, it was intended to be a "coherent model of the best things we can do at the start of the 21st century, even a bit ahead of time," the head of the Paris Olympics infrastructure group, Nicolas Ferrand, said earlier this year.
The 2,800 apartments will generate around half of the carbon emissions compared to equivalents built with regular construction techniques when energy savings over their lifetimes are taken into account, the Paris Games infrastructure body Solideo says.
After they have been used by Olympians and Paralympians between July 26 and September 8, the apartments will be converted into homes, with at least a third destined for public housing.