This summer’s Olympic Games will be like no other. In a historic first, 95% of the Paris 2024 venues are pre-existing or temporary structures (like the beach volleyball, which will be held in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, above). This aligns with the sustainability ambitions of city mayor Anne Hidalgo, who intends to make the French capital ‘the greenest big city in Europe’.
Her plans include an urban forest, new river paths along the Seine and 1,000km of new cycle lanes. But that’s not to say there won’t also be plenty of eye-catching architecture. Events will take place in famous sporting venues, from Roland-Garros to the Stade de France, as well as historic buildings such as the Grand Palais, a 124-year-old beaux-arts glasshouse. With this theme of reuse in mind, we look back at some of the most spectacular Olympic venues and see how they are used today.
Panathenaic Stadium
Athens 1896
The showpiece of the inaugural modern Olympic Games was a structure that is still unique today, as the only stadium in the world built entirely from marble. This striking hairpin-shaped amphitheatre dates to AD140, and was commissioned by Roman emperor Herodes Atticus to replace an even older stadium. It eventually fell into ruin and was lost for centuries, before being unearthed in 1870 and restored in line with plans by German architect Ernst Ziller. It has been used as an Olympic venue twice, both in 1896 and again in 2004, and is best known today as the finishing point for the annual Athens Marathon.
Yoyogi National Gymnasium
Tokyo 1964
This 13,000-seat stadium by Kenzo Tange, the first Japanese architect to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize, features a soaring suspended roof, once the largest of its kind in the world. Described by Tange himself as a hyperbolic paraboloid, the structure combines concrete columns and steel cables to create convex and concave geometries. The result is a modernist reinterpretation of the pagoda, building on the principles of Western architects like Le Corbusier and Eero Saarinen. Yoyogi has hosted events and concerts since the 1964 Games, when it served as an aquatic centre, and was the handball venue at the last Olympics, in 2021.
Olympiastadion
Munich 1972
This pioneering lightweight stadium symbolises Germany’s drive to rebuild its image after World War II. In contrast to the monumental architecture of the 1936 Games in Berlin, when the Nazis were in power, architect Günther Behnisch and engineer Frei Otto set out to use minimal materials. Otto’s groundbreaking research into tensile structures informed a huge tent-like canopy over the open-air park. Built from steel cables and transparent acrylic membrane, it provided shelter without obstructing views or casting shadows. The venue later became home to two football clubs and today hosts
events like snowboarding and motor racing.
Beijing National Stadium
Beijing 2008
Better known as The Bird’s Nest, this colossal construction takes its nickname from its iconic form. Steel columns and braces angle in all directions to create a giant mesh around the exterior of the bowl-shaped stadium, similar to how a bird’s nest is assembled from twigs. The effect is particularly dazzling at night when lighting displays the dramatic interplay of lines and voids. The design was developed by Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, with engineering office Arup and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. It hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of Beijing 2008, as well as track and
field events, and is now a major tourist attraction.
London 2012 Velodrome
London 2012
As London geared up to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2012, all eyes were on the Aquatics Centre designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, with its free-flowing roof based on the movement of water. But the surprise star turned out to be the arena designed by Hopkins Architects to host indoor track cycling events. With its slatted timber walls and Pringle-shaped roof, this 6,000-seat venue is highly distinctive, but also surprisingly economical in the use of materials and energy. Now part of the Lee Valley VeloPark, the velodrome remains a major venue for local and international competitive cycling.
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