SUSTAINABLE OLYMPIC STADIA: ATHENS 2004 AND LONDON 2012 - Essay Example

The aspects of sustainability in a built environment mainly focus on sustainable urban development and sustainable architecture. As far as sustainable urban development is concerned, the main focus is on the efficient use of urban land. Infrastructure resources such water and public transportation routes are also considered essential. The highlights of the critical articles researched were on ‘space-saving, time-saving approaches for the scale of the network design (like transport)’ and ‘energy saving approaches mostly for the scale of function of the infrastructure.

’ The second aspect, sustainable architecture, includes practical aspects and is related to the natural resources, particularly focusing on environmental sustainability in literature. The main themes provided by the literature refer to the three design faces: the design-concept, realisation-construction and evaluation. The first combines the design concept and relation with the surroundings, then materiality and waste management, and the third is the evaluation of the building development.

The literature provides more data than preferred by the author, perhaps a better brief of the details should be considered. ‘After a century of development, the modern Olympic Games have become the largest and most significant sporting event in the world’ (Zhou and Ap, 2009, p.80).The Olympic Games are regarded as a political, cultural and economic phenomenon, and organising the Olympic games has a huge impact on the people in a city, country, environment, and on the economic situation (Zhou and Ap, 2009).

The first modern Olympic games were held in Athens in 1896 and were founded by the Frenchmen Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Today, the Olympics belong to the world - every host city and country adds its own cultural character to the games. The universality and uniqueness of the games can be found in the Olympic ideals, understood in all languages of the world. The Olympic symbols of Ancient Olympia, the Olympic Flame and the Marathon race are the bridge between the ancient and the modern Olympic Games.

The athletic ideal is, above all else, the primary legacy of the Olympic Games, a legacy unique in the history of the world that has to be preserved during the years.