Franco-Brazilian architecture studio Triptyque has designed a building to house the United States delegation in the Olympic Village, which will be converted to affordable housing after the Olympics.

The structure is one of 82 buildings within the 2024 Olympic Village, which has been built in San Denis to house houses 14,000 athletes and technical staff on a site that previously contained industrial structures.

Triptyque, which is based in São Paulo and Paris, aimed was informed by the area's changing identity for its 1,246-square-metre building for Team USA.

"The project presents the identity and appeal of this developing area, so that it becomes the forerunner of a new way of 'living the city'," Triptyque said. "With ecological corridors, the blocks of buildings [are] connected to each other, all the way to the banks of the Seine."

The main facade of the building – constructed with a prefabricated wood facade and window frames over a concrete structure – creates a public square with the Cité du Cinéma, the complex that houses the athletes' training facilities and food services.

Above a triple-height white podium, the cladding gradiates from white to grey to charcoal, dividing the long facade into vertical bands.

Organised around a mixed-use core and a large irrigated interior garden, the residences and offices were distributed in four pavilions, "most with a transversal layout on both sides, with living spaces at the ends of the floor plan and an intimate area in the center."

The 150 apartments, which house between 450 and 500 US athletes, each have a private balcony that increases the residents' allotment of outdoor space.

In the future, the independent terraces are designed to allow residents to cover the structure in plants, while the apartments are cooled by a system of water pipes under the floorboards that negate the need for air conditioning.

"To preserve biodiversity and natural energy resources, Triptyque applied solutions such as installing an active roof, controlling carbon impact [through the use of renewable materials], preserving the biochemical quality of the soil and using water for urban cooling," the team said.

In September following the conclusion of the 2024 Paralympic Games, the project will undergo a round of renovations, including opening resident access to kitchens, to convert the athlete dormitories into social housing.

The temporary facility is designed to become part of the new permanent neighbourhood with residential, commercial and public spaces.

In another section of the Paris 2024 Olympic Village, Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés constructed a trio of apartment blocks lined with loggias and terracotta tiles. Nearby, French studio Dream also used terracotta tiles to clad an office building for use during the Olympic Games.

The photography is by Salem Mostefaoui.

Project credits

Collaborators: Triptyque, Chaix et Morel Taktyk, Artelia, Eliotech, Paris Ouest Construction