Life after the Olym­pics

Olympic heri­tage

The Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, was the main venue for the 2016 Olympic Games and is now called Parque Rita Lee in honor of the Brazi­lian singer and composer.

At the time of the Games, the park included the Olympic Tennis Center, the Cariocas Arenas and the Live Site. They were all accessed via the Olympic Way. This is a wide boule­vard for pede­strians that connects both ends of the park and its green areas.

The concept for the Olympic legacy was to trans­form all this infra­struc­ture into a public park with more green spaces and rooms for many forms of acti­vity after the Olympic Games.

The Ecomi­mesis office won the compe­ti­tion announced by the city admi­nis­tra­tion of Rio de Janeiro in 2022.

Rede­sign

The rede­sign of the140,000 m² Parque Rita Lee had the mission of “cele­bra­ting Rio’s life and culture”, respec­ting the natural land­scape and trans­forming the park into a major leisure desti­na­tion.

The plan­ners divided the park into two typo­lo­gies with diffe­rent charac­te­ristics, which inter­mingle along Olympic Way and are called Linear Park and Urban Park. The Linear Park features a 60-meter wide and 1.2 km long avenue with shaded areas and quiet zones created by plan­ting native trees and instal­ling street furni­ture.

The Urban Park creates spec­ta­cular, colorful recrea­tion and leisure areas with play and sports equip­ment as well as colorful floor cove­rings, which are intended to attract visi­tors to a modern and unusual space. The desi­gned surfaces divide the space into a child­ren’s area with toys and a water area, meeting zones with furni­ture and a picnic area, the sports area with teqball, table tennis, basket­ball and a clim­bing wall, and the skate park.

Parque Rita Lee also includes a new Atlantic forest of more than 800 m², 1,100 new native tree seed­lings and 8,000 m² of newly planted green areas.

White elephants?

Parque Rita Lee is a good example of how urban spaces can be restruc­tured to create more nature, more recrea­tion and more well-being.

There is no trace of the noto­rious white elephants that are often mentioned in connec­tion with the post-Olympic use of large buil­dings and faci­li­ties.