Few cultural events bring the world together like the Olympics. Today, athletes from around the world continue to participate in a variety of competitions after the covid-19 pandemic. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. In turn, they bring to question the role of architecture and design in each host city's urban evolution.
A central thread in the discussion of the architectural and urban impact of the Olympics is adaptive reuse and the ability to bring these venues (and their resulting infrastructure) to life during and after the games. The following articles explore the architectural, urban and social impacts of the Olympic Games, as well as a few case studies. Together, they explore what it means to invest in these large urban projects, and how their impact might be measured or reconsidered over time.
