Milan Olympics Housing Is Built for Easy Reuse
New athlete accommodations for this year’s winter games will convert to student dorms, helping to cut emissions.
Milan's new athlete's complex at Porta Romana, shown here in rendering, is the first building completed on fomer railway yards just south of the city center.
Photographer: Dave BurkMilan’s new athletes’ village, which will receive its first guests this week for the Winter Olympics, is a tidy case study in how host cities are setting priorities—and learning from past mistakes—when it comes to Olympic construction.
While the games have given rise to showy landmark complexes the world over, practical long-term uses are often an afterthought. Milan’s new 1,700-bed complex, by contrast, was designed to meet a discrete need after the games have ended: addressing the city’s shortage of student housing.