On Friday, July 26th, Paris began the long-awaited Olympic and Paralympic Games. Located in the city’s Seine-Saint-Denis district, Dominque Perrault Architecture designed the master plan for the Athletes Village. Featuring 2,400 housing units and 119,000 square meters of various activities, offices, and services, this master plan has become a significant portion of the legacy of the Paris Games.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Olympic games included some unusual medal competitions, including architectural design and town planning. While these are no longer awarded Olympic events, architecture and urban planning continues to continue to have a crucial effect on the development of the global sporting event. Cities that bid to host face an important challenge in adapting their infrastructure to accommodate not only the venues and facilities, but all the support structures needed for a safe and enjoyable edition. Paris is no different. While the city hosted 2 previous editions of the games over a century ago, the challenges of the modern-day Games have proven significant. However, the city’s expansive infrastructures have enabled officials to adjust the measures in an effort to have sustainable development for and after the Games. With less than a month to go until the opening ceremony, explore the measures taken by city officials and the long-lasting effects of hosting an Olympic event.
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East of Paris, in Seine-Saint-Denis, sits a "Babel-like" housing estate. Its otherworldly atmosphere—existing somewhere between a 'new world' utopian dream and a postmodern, neoclassical housing estate—has set the scene for two Hollywood films including Brazil (1984) and, more recently, the upcoming second instalment of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (2015). Parisian photographer Laurent Kronental's photo series, Souvenir d'un Futur (Memory of a Future), is an homage to the senior citizens of the French capital's Grand Ensemble region — not only in Noisy-le-Grand but across the Parisian banlieue. His photographs capture a number of places and their people which, in spite of their often megalomaniacal architectural settings, have been comparatively overlooked.
See Laurent Kronental's photo series—the result of four years of visits—after the break.
.jpg?1443599941 "Les Orgues de Flandre, 19e arrondissement Paris, 2014. Image © Laurent Kronental")
.jpg?1443599908 "Le Pavé Neuf, Noisy-le-Grand, 2015. Image © Laurent Kronental")
.jpg?1443599809 "Joseph, 88 ans, Les Espaces d'Abraxas, Noisy-le-Grand, 2014. Image © Laurent Kronental")
.jpg?1443599826 "Les Tours Aillaud, Cité Pablo Picasso, Nanterre, 2014. Image © Laurent Kronental")
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