Design for legacy: Alternative urban visions of the Winter Olympic Games

Description

The development and diversification of the Olympic Games over the course of the twentieth century established a shift in the scale of their urban impact. As hosting the Games emerged as an opportunity and impetus to advance regional development plans, challenges around the long-term function and integration of venues and infrastructure began to rise. The continued growth of the Games into the 21st Century has made hosting the event a high-risk endeavour that fewer cities are willing to take on, and as a result, the necessity to develop research supporting positive long-term legacies and a more sustainable Games has been identified and established as a priority on the Olympic agenda. In recent decades, alternate urban strategies have been sought by Olympic hosts of both Summer and Winter contests. This paper interrogates existing and emerging approaches to hosting the Olympic Games, examining the concepts of reuse (e.g. Innsbruck 1964, 1976, 2012), temporality (e.g. Cortina 1956, Lausanne 2020, Skating Ovals), twin-city and supporting region bids (e.g. Milano-Cortina 2026), and the alignment of Olympic to regional development plans in the Winter Olympic context. Addressing the lack of comparative analyses in academic literature (particularly in relation to the Winter Olympic Games) the study draws focus to the implementation and outcomes of different urban approaches by examining urban strategies and long-term legacies across a range of Winter Olympic host sites and venues.

Period	8 Jan 2020
Event title	Congress of Youth & Winter Sports
Event type	Conference
Location	Lausanne, SwitzerlandShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International