096 OLYMPICS


as a ‘design flaw anticipating eat-out hipsterdom’. So it goes. Explanations of how and why things happened are a little tricky. Te park has been given a distracting glitter, by the UCL, LFF and V&A, so much tinsel shaken out across the site amidst some of the towers the colour of scorched earth. Such nuggets fall like meteors from another planet to pique our curiosity more than they satisfy it, about how it might be done better. You pass by the apartments, products of the new city, and aggressive minimalism of some of the blocks, beautifully bleak, dialogues of non- connection. London’s melting pot holds many lumps, like the hungry looking for a feast to which they had no hope of being invited, watching as those towers were erected. It had been going pristine for a while, but now this part of the East End has been sanitised and skyscraperised. Much of the architecture shows a certain reticence, the Zen term mu seems applicable: it means nothingness as a spiritual and aesthetic


concept, and in architecture approximates to Mies van der Rohe’s desired minimalism, beinahe nichts – almost nothing. So now we have a lot of new buildings, nothing obtrusive, nothing cheap, unenchanting architecture that disappears, diluted of meaning and a sense of place. Te net effect is perilously close to stultification. It is enough to make one echo Ian Nairn fulminating in 1966: ‘Stop all the architects now… the outstanding and appalling fact about modern architecture is that it is not good enough.’ Te parade’s passed by, the Olympic circus has struck its tents, the whole thing dissolved, and we are left with an architectural nothing. Yet ugly buildings have always been with us, and there is only so much architects can do about it. Te farraginous method of development made this almost inevitable.


Now in France, 12 years later, there were no new sporting facilities. Everything required for an Olympic Games was already there. It was all simply upgraded, extended,


refurbished, repurposed, and generally done over. It was the first time there has been so little building for the Games. Te ‘emblematic’ project of the Games was not a building at all, but the ‘reconquest’ of the Seine as part of a €1.4bn national, regional and city project, the plan baignade, to cleanse the river from its source to the sea. Te pursuit of civilised urban life extended to over 20 projects completed under the heading of Réinventer Paris. Monuments abound in the city itself, so the desire was to make it all more enjoyable and healthy for everyone that lives there and visits. Important public spaces such as the Place de la République and the Place de la Bastille were made progressively more pedestrian-friendly. An urban forest of 478 trees were planted near the Gare Montparnasse in the Place de Catalogne. Te Champs-Élysées became a pedestrian- friendly ‘extraordinary garden’. Other items in this pro-pedestrian, pro-bike, pro-tree, anti- car banquet included 1,000km of cycle lanes


This image and right The Olympic Village’s 2,800 units will become permanent homes for up to 6,000 people


Above and far right The Grand Palais was renovated and hosted fencing and taekwondo


RIGHT: PARIS 2024 RAPHAEL VRIET


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