Chatillon Architectes completed the Grand Palais restoration for the Paris Olympics.
Photo: Laurent Kronental
The Most Architecturally Stunning Olympic Sporting Venues Throughout History
Architecture remains an essential component to the Games, influencing both where and how athletes perform
Architecture is so integral to the pageantry and power of the Olympic games that, in 1912, the organizers of the Stockholm edition decided to include the discipline in medal competition, awarding the Swiss team of Eugène-Eduoard Monod and Alphones Lavierrère a gold medal for their design of a stadium.
Architecture hasn’t been in contention for medals since the 1948 games, but it remains an essential component to the competition, influencing both where and how athletes perform and, for better or worse, transforming their host cities. Below, Galerie looks back at a half dozen of the Olympic Games’ most fascinating built environments.
Inside the Paris Olympics Aquatics Centre, designed by VenhoevenCS and Ateliers 2/3/4. Photo: Simon Guesdon
1. 2024 Paris
This year’s games in the City of Light claim to be the greenest ever, with only five percent of the venues constructed specifically for the events—most notably, VenhoevenCS and Ateliers 2/3/4’s Aquatics Centre made of wood and recycled plastic waste. Existing structures have been refreshed, including Chatillon Architectes’ space for taekwondo and fencing competitions in the Grand Palais, and zones defined by scaffolding at the Eiffel Tower and Versailles. And while plans to clean up the Seine in time for swimming have been met by controversy, and efforts to extend the Métro beset by delays, the Olympic Games’ ambitious agenda is perhaps best encapsulated by the Adidas Arena, of low-carbon concrete and recycled aluminum, which the organization has sited in the 18th Arridonssiment, an effort both celebrated as a focus of resources to an underserved area and dismissed as a gentrifying force that will remove communities of refugees the city hasn’t welcomed elsewhere.
Japan National Stadium Photo: Japan Sport Council
2. 2020 Tokyo
Pritzker Prize–winning architect Zaha Hadid was, at one point, slated to design the Olympic Stadium for the Tokyo games, but after significant criticism for its cost and scale, the honor eventually went to Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. His National Stadium featured eaves clad in cedar grown in some four dozen local prefectures, which created both shade and airflow. Solar panels and rainwater collection points underscored the project’s environmental sensitivity, as did the Games’ plans to reuse the 1964 concrete stadia Kenzo Tange designed for that year’s games.
Estadio Olímpico Universitario. Photo: Courtesy of RunningToddler
3. 1968 Mexico City
These Flower Power–era games are best known for their psychedelic black-and-white poster of radiating type, designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Eduardo Terrazas, and Lance Wyman. But the Estadio Olímpico Universitario is equally eye-popping: the trio of architects Augusto Pérez Palacios, Raúl Salinas, and Jorge Bravo seized upon the volcanic stone which clad the façade of the existing 1952 building and fashioned it into terraces of rising steps, not unlike the lines of the poster. And it’s also equally artful, thanks Diego Rivera, who designed a visionary mosaic for the stadium’s exterior—though, sadly, he died before getting further than its rear wall.
Zaha Hadid’s design for the London Aquatic Centre is inspired by the fluid geometries of water. Photo: Helene Binet
4. 2012 London
Speaking of posters, the U.K.’s 2012 Games remain notorious for their Lisa Simpson-esque logo and terrifying mutant mascots. Its architectural legacy is more secure, thanks to Zaha Hadid’s splashy Aquatic Centre. Inspired by the river landscapes surrounding the Olympic Park, Hadid devised a distinctive, undulating roof extending some 525 feet, and a pair of “wings” for spectators, which later were removed and replaced by glazing. Its environmental legacy also continues: those wings were reused in other projects, as were the building’s PVC wrap, seats, and even toilets.
Palazzetto Dello Sport. Photo: Rome Municipality
5. 1960 Rome
Italy’s la dolce vita games were a feat of organization, setting the inaugural Paralympic Games along with the Olympic Games in 34 venues across the city. Architect and engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, who had previously collaborated with Gio Ponti on 1950s iconic Pirelli Tower in Milan, brought his innovative use of reinforced concrete to bear on a series of new buildings, including the Corsa Francia Viaduct, which alternates v-shaped beams and rectangular and cross-shaped pillars. He’s perhaps most remembered by the jellyfish-shaped Palazzetto dello Sport, a collaboration with architect Annibale Vitellozzi, which boasts a dome of flying buttresses completed in just 40 days.
Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam Photo: Courtesy Wiki
6. 1928 Amsterdam
De Stijl founding member Jan Wils won the gold medal for his Olympic Stadium, an ode to the beauty and versatility of red brick. His arena, includes a football pitch and running track with seating defined by a double balustrade, in the material. Nearby, the Marathon Tower rises some 46 meters into the air to display an abstracted representation of the Olympic Flame. Wils devised a more decorative plan than subsequent stadiums, complete with athletic figures standing sentry at the entrance. But its character is resolutely Dutch: the main draw of the stadium is its 500m cycling track, and parking spots for thousands of bicycles.
Cover: Chatillon Architectes completed the Grand Palais restoration for the Paris Olympics.
Photo: Laurent Kronental
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