The sports facilities of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (they will be held August 5-21) are located in four clusters - Barra, Copacabana, Maracanã and Deodoro. The Barra di Tijuca area will host the Olympic Village, Press Center (MPC), Main Broadcasting Center (IBC) and 15 sports facilities; Copacabana will host rowing, sailing, triathlon, beach volleyball, open water swimming and opening and closing ceremonies; Maracana will host archery competitions, a football tournament and athletics. Deodoro Park, renovated by the Brazilian architectural studio Vigliecca & Associados, will host 11 Olympic competitions (rowing slalom, mountain bike, cycling, shooting, modern pentathlon, women's basketball, rugby, equestrian sports, field hockey) and four Paralympic shooting, football 7x7, dressage) sports. At the end of the Games, 2.6 million m2 of the park's area will remain in the urban fabric, so the architects were required to develop not only the Olympic facilities themselves, but also the principle of their adaptation for subsequent use.
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Today, this picturesque valley surrounded by mountain peaks is the area with the youngest population and, at the same time, with the lowest human development index in the city. It is assumed that the new public space with sports saturation will increase this index and reduce social tension: 490,000 m2 of the Olympic Park will become the second largest urban park in Rio de Janeiro - X-Park with a skate park, walking and jogging paths and a picnic area.
Deodoro Park was built in 2007 for the Pan American Games: for the Olympics, it was necessary to adapt the existing sports facilities to the regulations that have changed over nine years and cope with the complex topography when building new ones. So, for the construction of the most technically complex object of the Games - artificial rowing slalom track - the site with the smallest slope was used in order to minimize the amount of earthworks and place the spectators' seats along the "stream" directly on the terrain. In turn, the steepest hilly sections approached the equipment trails for mountain bike and bicycle motocross … After the end of the Games, the five-kilometer mountain bike trail will be dismantled, leaving a small section for X-Park, and the BMX hills will be completely given to professionals.
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66.5 meter unsupported space Youth Arenaroofed by seven steel trusses 4.3 m high, it will house competitions in women's basketball, modern pentathlon and paralympic fencing, and after that it will become a training base for Brazilian athletes. Air conditioning and artificial lighting of the building will be carried out only during the period of the Games: after them 14,300 m2 of the total area will function with natural ventilation and lighting: swivel screens, blinds and a huge roof overhang will protect the interior from overheating in the hot Brazilian sun.
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Capacity complex of the National Rifle Center, built in 2007 according to the BCMF Arquitetos project, had to be enlarged three times, but at the same time the appearance and architecture of the building had to be preserved. The first solution - the construction of a temporary pavilion - was very expensive, and the architects developed a scheme to increase the number of seats by reducing the angle of inclination of the stands: as a result, instead of 600 permanent seats, 2,000 temporary ones began to fit. Accordingly, the shooting range was also pushed back. Thus, on the total area of the complex of 53,500 m2, 7250 spectator seats are located, about half of which will be dismantled after the end of the Games.
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For the construction of a temporary Deodoro Stadiumdesigned for rugby, modern pentathlon, dressage and 7x7 football, the most economical solution was chosen: according to the developers, a double layer of asphalt, which is thinner than the traditional “pie”, with a total coverage of 34,000 m2, significantly reduces investment.
Despite the fact that the main goal in the design of each object was to reduce costs and develop scenarios for post-Olympiad use, the total cost of construction was about $ 10.76 billion, which puts Rio in the fifth place in the ranking of the most expensive Olympics (ahead - Athens, London, Beijing and Sochi). At the same time, two years ago, the IOC vice president called the organization of the construction of the Brazilian Olympic facilities "the worst in history", today Brazil is in a state of deep economic recession, and the state of Rio de Janeiro itself is on the verge of default. Two months are left before the opening of the Games, but the upcoming major sporting event is overshadowed by a huge political scandal and large-scale litigation: in particular, it is Deodoro Park that appears in the federal anti-corruption investigation about the misappropriation of budget funds for the renovation of facilities that are not directly related to the Games.
The Olympics will undoubtedly improve the quality of life of Brazilians through significant investments in infrastructure, but will not pull out of the current crisis. Nevertheless, the architects hope that after the Games, X-Park will become a place of attraction for active youth from nearby residential areas and a development impulse for the local community.
