Montreal, Canada

The Olympic Stadium

The Olympic Stadium in Montreal was built for the 1976 summer Olympics. It was designed by French architect Roger Taillibert. It is a very elaborate facility featuring a retractable roof, which is opened and closed by a huge 175 meter tower (the tallest inclined structure in the world currently). The Olympic pool is located under the tower. What used to be the velodrome has since been converted into the Montreal Biodome.

Both the Biodome and the Stadium are incredible feats of architecture and design in their own right. The Biodome houses many animals native to different regions of the world. Their native environment has been created from the vegetation to the climate. One are of the Biodome is extremely humid and striking parrots roam free. Another area is cold, recreating Northern Canada, such that one might even need a coat. A huge amount of thought went into the design of each environment. The Biodome is where biology meets architecture and interior design. The Stadium is a magnificent structure that towers impossibly over everyone. The Stadium has a delicate quality about it that many similar structures today lack. It doesn't seem of this world.

The Olympic Stadium in Montreal should be visited by the designer-traveler because in one go a person is able to explore and experience a beautiful structure, and also to observe how design can be applied to science. Besides all this, travelling to this site would provide an architect or designer with an interesting puzzle to solve. The structure, as wonderful as it is, has many flaws and the building requires a lot of work to maintain. What could have been done differently in the design to avoid this? Are the materials ideal? This is an opportunity to save a piece of history and to really redesign a structure within tight constraints: you already know the aesthetics of it, so how can the inside, the construction, work better?


by Anja M.