Sports and entertainment architecture studio Populous – designers of the London 2012 Olympic Stadium – will advise on venue design for Paris’ 2024 Olympic bid.
The firm will collaborate with international engineering firm Egis to draw up plans for 38 Olympic and Paralympic facilities.
Together, they will design new permanent and temporary buildings and ensure existing venues in the French capital are ready for the scale and needs of Olympic and Paralympic events.
“This is a great opportunity for Paris to showcase a beautiful international city and its proud sporting history,” said Populous senior principal Ben Vickery. “For Populous, it will be an exciting step on our Olympic Games journey, showcasing our expertise in designing experiences that can be enjoyed by millions of people, whether they’re at the events, soaking up the atmosphere in the host city or watching from around the world.”
Populous have previously created designs for 13 Olympic and seven Paralympic Games and are the the only firm to have designed three main Olympic stadiums – for London 2012, Sydney 2000 and the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.
They also have experience working on high-profile projects in France, such as
the recently-opened Parc Olympique Lyonnais and
the forthcoming Grand Stade FFR rugby stadium. Populous Principal Francois Clement said: “We truly believe that our knowledge and experience, both of Olympic and Paralympic Games work and of working in France, together with Egis, help Paris to create an incredible event in 2024. We are very proud to be working with the Paris bid team.”
Egis have worked on the construction or renovation of most of the stadiums that will host matches at the 2016 UEFA Euro Cup in France,
including Herzog & de Meuron’s Matmut-Atlantique stadium in Bordeaux.Nicolas Jachiet, Egis chairman and CEO, said: “Our consulting teams will enthusiastically bring all their expertise and know-how in project management so that Paris can host the Olympics in 2024. Thanks to the multiplicity of its skills and its cross specialisation process, Egis is now recognised as a major player in the engineering of stadiums.”
Paris is competing against Rome, Budapest, Los Angeles and Hamburg to host the 2024 Games, and the the bid team is pulling out all the stops to bring the event back to the city for the first time since 1924.
The French public is being encouraged to submit ideas for the bid,
in what is being dubbed the “biggest ever” public engagement initiative in Olympic bid history. Meanwhile, Christophe Dalstein, the director of Europa City – a vast leisure development in the suburbs of Paris which will open in 2024 –
recently told CLAD how the scheme can bolster the bid. He revealed that as well as hosting some sporting facilities, the Bjarke Ingels-designed city will also become a leisure and holiday destination for visitors travelling to enjoy the Games.
