Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games

CHALLENGE. From the stadium to the mountain or the arena to the forest, the Winter Olympics occupies venues and climates that differ vastly from event to event. Inserting a global mega event with the accompanying participants, spectators and world’s media into these spaces is always an immense, and ultimately rewarding, endeavor. How you bring together all the distinct elements is intrinsic in the success of the spectacle.

INNOVATION. We’ve built numerous winter sports facilities around the world; this understanding of how modern sports venues perform and operate helps us design the event around these buildings and link them into the overall Games set-up.

It’s not only the performance levels of the athletes that have increased dramatically over the years. The expectation of the visitor experience and the modern demands of safety and efficiency have also skyrocketed. Our consultation for venue and event planning includes the development and implementation of tailored space layouts. We conduct planning workshops, drawing reviews and on-going commentary that ensures our client’s team can develop temporary event building standards which meet the latest local and international codes, supplier capabilities and best practices.

We also develop a Master Space Program for competition and major non-competition facilities that venue teams can use to create an Area Allocation Matrix. This process is tied with several Functional Areas across the event master plan, which are also coordinated with our Generic Space Layouts that provide temporary commodity spaces. This approach permits optimal space allocation and occupancy which ultimately allows for maximum cost efficiency and the reduction in risk.

IMPACT. For a mega event often held in sub-zero temperatures far away from a metropolitan hub, the fundamentals of the planning and design need to be sound. We make sure at the outset that the venue briefs, requirements and schedules are correct and meet the aspirations of the LOC and the IOC.