The 2014 games are drawing closer and the Olympic Village is on its way to completion. Nanjing Expat spoke to the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee to get under the skin of the sustainable village for the élite athletes.
Construction of the village began in September 2011. Over two years later, the basic building work has been completed and the focus now lies on the inner facilities and interior decoration.
Sustainable Building – An environmentally friendly village
Environmentally speaking, the site is a great step forwards for sustainable living. The entire village will be powered with waste electricity from local Nanjing factories, making a great contribution towards China’s efforts at environmental protection and efficient resource management. What is more, all the buses running from the village will be clean energy buses, running on the same waste electricity. Just as with e-bikes, the batteries will be removed and charged in the village to ensure a smooth running of the transport system.
This being said, a strange fact catches the eye in terms of resource management. The residential area will be made up of six nine-storey tall “pods”, three on each side facing one another, resembling a cog if viewed from above. Perched on top of these pods, ten towers will each rise 23 stories high (see photo). The most perturbing aspect of the construction of the Olympic village is that the ten towers, which make up the bulk of the residential capacities, will not actually be in use during the Games, despite the sizeable effort spent on their construction, which with the rest of the village is to be completed in April 2014.
The 6000 Olympic visitors, a mix of participants in the Games, as well as youth ambassadors and youth reporters chosen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to represent their respective countries, will be housed only in the pods.
While this throws up the question of efficient resource management, environmentalists can take comfort in the fact that the apartments will be utilised when the games are over and the village transformed into a “common” residential area.
A self-sufficient micro-cosmos
The elite few that will be allowed a stay in the village during the Games will encounter a lively, self-sufficient micro-cosmos with international food and a range of entertainment on hand.
Catering for 204 different nations is definitely no easy task; but the kitchen serving up a vast selection of international food 14 hours a day should be able to cope. The offer of four types of breakfast, including halal, during the 2013 Asian Youth Games will be further expanded to make sure there is something for everybody.
By way of entertainment there will be an array of world-cultural booths lined up for young visitors to experience different countries’ customs. That is not all the village has to offer in this area; it will further include a stage for themed parties and concerts.
Transport to and from major competition locations as well as central metro stations will be provided to the residents during the Games in form of shuttle buses. The well-rounded offerings available in the Village, one can safely assume, make the venture out into the real world a matter of choice rather than necessity. We shall see how daring our young, international athletes are.
The offices and meeting rooms for the National Olympic Committee are located in the southwestern part of the village. Their post-game functions are in actuality that of a future kindergarten and elementary school.
When it is all over and the excitement of the Games has died down, affluent Nanjingers will be able to acquire a property in the 10,000 square metre area, closed off from the public. Apart from the gain in “face” that the acquisition of an Olympic apartment brings with it, the prospect of an educational institution just a stone’s throw away will certainly ensure the YOG village apartment will be hot property on the real-estate market.
