Green Buildings for a Sustainable Future

Green construction plays an essential role in the transition to a sustainable future. By adopting architectural practices consistent with sustainable development, we can reduce our carbon footprint and minimize our impact on natural resources. Green building design is based on several key principles that help reduce environmental impact and maximize resource efficiency.

At the time of its bid to host the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, France pledged to halve the Games’ carbon footprint compared with previous editions. To achieve this goal, the use of wood has become a must. Wood is by nature a material that captures carbon from the atmosphere, and is renewable. Its use in buildings reduces greenhouse gas emissions over their entire lifecycle, and stores
carbon over the long term. The Olympic Village, the Porte de la Chapelle Arena, the ephemeral Grand Palais, the Olympic Aquatic Center etc. These emblematic buildings, erected for the Games, all feature wood. The French government wanted the wooden buildings to be used not just for the Games, but for the long term. They were designed to be reversible, meaning that at the end of the Games, the
Olympic Village were transformed into residential housing and offices. For the Olympic swimming pool, the wooden elements were prefabricated by a Bas-Rhin company supported by the French government as part of the “Industrialization of wood products and construction systems” call for projects under the France 2030 budget.

SOLIDEO’s missions were to work on the legacy of the Paris Games with the delivery to the inhabitants of the Olympic and Paralympic sites as part of a sustainable urban project, in close cooperation with local authorities including the realization of reversibility works in the housing of the Village des Athlètes, but also the adaptation of public facilities so that they can be used by sports clubs, associations and
communities, as well as the realization of complementary works and necessary to the heritage, such as the Ampère park in Saint-Denis, the Saint-Denis school group or the Dugny school group.

Co-organised by the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, and the Research Innovation Office (RIO) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the sixth edition of the Sustainability Lecture Series will bring together a mix of speakers from the academic and business communities to share their views, experiences and good practices towards sustainability.