“There were eight athletes in that apartment.” In the former Olympic village for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), the second life of the athletes’ accommodation buildings is launched, before welcoming 6,000 new residents.
From the alley – deserted – which leads to the Seine, the sounds of saws and other construction tools can still be heard. Workers are at work in the buildings and on the surrounding land to develop or re-develop what was an industrial wasteland “where no one wanted to go before”, according to the socialist mayor of Saint-Denis, Mathieu Hanotin.
From now on, the modern and colorful facades follow one another on one side of the alley, and on the other the old power station of the Halle Maxwell has been rehabilitated, to accommodate teams from the Ministry of the Interior.
In the middle of the street, the building with golden balcony railings, previously occupied by the delegation of Australian athletes, is changing: in the 4-room apartment on the second floor, there are still traces on the walls and ceiling of the old partition, which delimited a room occupied by two athletes.
“In all there were eight athletes in this apartment”, divided into four double rooms, explains Virginie Leroy, president of Vinci Immobilier, one of the developers who designed the buildings of the Olympic village.
Of this temporary accommodation, three bedrooms and the two bathrooms remain unchanged, the common living space is transformed into a kitchen and opens onto the former fourth bedroom, the partition of which has been broken to create a large living room.
– “Minimal” work –
“Ultimately the transformation work is minimal because we had designed the spaces with a view to creating housing,” explains Constantin Lécosse, technical director of Vinci Immobilier.
Kitchen tiling had, for example, already been laid in the common living area and the two bathrooms, one of which is accessible to people with reduced mobility, have been retained “for the comfort of the residents”, he explains. .
Priority was given to the quality of the living environment of future residents, and then the Vinci Immobilier teams thought about ways to “fit” athletes’ rooms into these homes, explained Virginie Leroy to the Minister of Housing. and urban renovation Valérie Létard, during a visit organized Thursday.
In its entirety, the former Olympic village will be transformed into 2,800 housing units, two school groups, offices for 6,000 employees, 6 hectares of green spaces, shops, etc.
“A very strong legacy for the territory”, which will make it possible to accommodate “6,000 new inhabitants”, welcomed Yann Krysinski, general director of the Olympic works delivery company (Solideo).
Among the 1,034 housing units designed by Vinci (one of the developers with Icade or Nexity), 282 will be student rooms, 160 will be social housing, 354 will be rented by an institutional investor at a price adapted to the middle classes and 238 will be for sale at individuals (home ownership program or via real joint lease).
“The students will return to the 2025 school year in the residences of the athletes’ village,” assured Yann Krysinski. The other accommodation, largely designed for families, will be delivered over the next year, according to the head of “legacy of the Games”.
Low carbon consumption was included in Solideo’s specifications, both for the construction, which used low-carbon concrete and wood, and for the uses, which will benefit from a geothermal heating and cooling system.
The future district was awarded the State EcoQuartier label on Thursday.
During a press conference, Valérie Létard hailed “a living symbol of our ability to build a France resolutely turned towards the future” and said she wished to draw inspiration from the innovations of Paris 2024 to present “simplification measures in matters town planning and construction.
The “dual state building permit”, which allowed the transformation of buildings without requesting a new authorization, “is emulated”, according to the minister, who refers to parliamentary work on a “+multidestination+ permit for the benefit of transformation of offices in housing”.
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