Milan’s Olympic Athletes’ Village is Designed for Reuse

Unlike some prior Olympic housing villages, Milan’s new athletes’ village is, as Feargus O'Sullivan puts it in Bloomberg CityLab, “a tidy case study in how host cities are setting priorities—and learning from past mistakes—when it comes to Olympic construction.”

The complex is specifically designed to meet the city’s student housing needs after the games end. The units are conveniently already dorm-like, studio apartments with private bathrooms and kitchenettes. “To reduce emissions, each floor also has a large communal kitchen, roofs are outfitted with photovoltaic panels, and the complex’s six buildings were prefabricated offsite.” 

Although some dorms will be available to low-income students at reduced rates, the majority will be the costliest of Milan’s officially affiliated student lodgings. “This has rankled some locals who see the private-public partnership between the city and developer COIMA SGR (which was involved in a corruption investigation last year) as a poor deal for Milan.” 

For many locals, this points to a common problem with Olympic developments: “Even as the processes become more environmentally friendly, the resulting structures may be discouragingly expensive for all but a few.”