Politique Internationale — The Société de livraison des ouvrages olympiques (Olympic Works Delivery Company - SOLIDEO) is responsible for the development of the Olympic and Paralympic venues for Paris 2024. Before embarking on this adventure, did you look abroad to see how things worked?
Isabelle Vallentin — Of course. From the outset, we have made sure to broaden the scope of our thinking. The approach to the Tokyo Games in 2021 was somewhat limited in the sense that the pandemic limited flows to a minimum. These were not Games in their traditional configuration. However, we carefully studied previous editions of the Games. All of them had good ideas but we decided to start on a different basis, taking things in the other direction. Let me explain: rather than developing the sites according to the competitions and then thinking about reconverting them, we wanted to respond to the needs of the population before turning our minds to the sports perspective. Let’s take a highly specific example: the Olympic Village will take root in a future residential area with a wide range of services and public facilities to support the daily life of the inhabitants. We considered this district with a view to its future inhabitants before turning our thoughts to the construction of the Olympic village. This does not mean that we underestimate the expectations of the thousands of athletes expected in Paris: on the contrary, we realised how much these young athletes need breathing space and the opportunity to be together when subjected to the stress of the events. The Paris 2024 Olympic Village will be comfortable, airy and welcoming.
P. I. — Several major French companies are involved in the Paris 2024 organisation, some of them directly in projects within the scope of your competence. Do they adopt an approach that starts from overall needs before considering the sports perspective, as you do?
I. V. — At SOLIDEO the dominant perspective on a daily basis is to deliver a sustainable and comfortable legacy for the area. Our main mission is to build permanent facilities and infrastructures for the benefit of the inhabitants and users. Our roles are those of a public development body. By definition, we therefore work mainly with the development and construction sectors. In running the projects, we move forward with the objective of prefiguring the city of tomorrow in line with environmental, social and accessibility considerations. The Olympic and Paralympic dimension of our facilities is a stimulus to work faster, mobilising know-how and encouraging those involved to pool their expertise for the city of tomorrow. The success of our mission will be judged by the quality of the facilities and their successful conversion to benefit the inhabitants and users once the Games are over.
P. I. — How is the consultation phase going for the Paris 2024 construction sites?
I. V. — There are two aspects. The first, the regulatory context, is highly restrictive. It is based on a set of texts which set out the limits for essential procedures. Most of the public surveys took place in the 2019-2020 period. Beyond the regulatory aspect, we wanted to innovate in this area by involving the public as much as possible. For example, people could give their opinions online. The health crisis has not interrupted this effort: using digital tools, virtual meetings have taken over from the meetings initially scheduled in municipal halls. The second part of the consultation is more informal: we decided to go and meet the population to present the projects and respond to their concerns; legitimate concerns, by the way, since we are making major changes to their neighbourhood, to the environment they are used to. In total, more than 150 public meetings have been organised since 2019 on the projects for which we are the contracting body (editor’s note: Athletes’ Village, Media Village and Elancourt Hill). This meant 1 meeting per week, involving over 3000 people.
P. I. — Are you constantly looking at the calendar to check whether you are on schedule for the summer 2024 deadline?
I. V. — We have drawn up a schedule for the work on the Olympic facilities as from 2018, with very precise deadlines. All sites are to be delivered by 31 December 2023. This will be followed by a period until 1 March 2024 for eliminating any reservations. We are currently on schedule in terms of the deadlines, costs and programmes planned in 2018. We have 40 facilities in progress and 58 by the end of the year. SOLIDEO’s role is twofold: on the one hand, we directly implement some construction projects, such as the Athletes’ Village and the Media Village; on the other hand, we have a supervisory role that involves ensuring compliance with the schedule, costs and ambitions of the entire project. Within this framework, we ensure that public funding is properly channelled between all stakeholders. For these different areas of intervention, we apply a proven and demanding reporting methodology drawn from the best practices in the industry. There can always be problems with delays – this is common in large-scale projects – but we are organised to deal with them: early warning signals, flexible management of deadlines, allocating extra teams, etc. In specific terms, we are never short of solutions.
P. I. — The challenge of the acceptability of your projects is a key issue to guarantee the success of the overall operation you are carrying out. How do you raise the awareness of the companies that support you?
I. V. — Overall, whether in terms of environmental excellence, accessibility or employment and regional development, all the companies and stakeholders joining the Olympic adventure have the same ambitions as SOLIDEO. The agreed objectives are set out in contracts that we sign with companies in pursuit of these ambitions.
So it is a collective role, including with regard to acceptability. Depending on the highlights of each facility or sector, some players have also taken part in the participation and consultation activities organised throughout the design of the projects. The acceptability of our projects depends on the involvement of all stakeholders.
P. I. — You mentioned the concerns of the populations inherent in the development of any major project. To what extent should tailor-made information be provided?
I. V. — We started from the principle of workshops, each devoted to one or two specific topics: the development of public areas, transport, joint ownership issues, school areas or financing schemes. These workshops are followed by feedback and our projects can be amended when good ideas emerge. This way of working really gets to the bottom of things, whereas a general overview does not provide the same density of information. At the same time, we publish a magazine, with more than 50,000 copies distributed in the Athletes’ Village. The magazine monitors the progress of the projects in detail.
P. I. — Have you never been afraid that a debate could get out of hand, for example during public meetings?
I. V. — No. First of all, each of our meetings is professionally run, with a facilitator who allocates speaking time and ensures balanced debates. Controversy is possible and even welcome, as it fosters a closer sense of ownership. It is up to us to show how our achievements match the aspirations of all. In this case, from the beginning I have believed in the quality of our proposals. For example, we have never undertaken gigantic projects with apartment buildings of more than ten floors.
P. I. — Is the idea of these discussions to show that life around the future Olympic village will be more pleasant than in the area as it currently stands?
I. V. — This is not an idea, it is the reality. As we are currently redesigning it, the Olympic Village area will be an exemplary neighbourhood that prefigures the city of tomorrow, with more comfort and more facilities, pleasant to live in on a daily basis. At the end of the Games, this area will be ‟connected” with the rest of the area. We will also introduce green belts (editor’s note: ecological developments) that will allow natural landscapes, biodiversity and urban developments to coexist in harmony. Constraints are reduced to a minimum in all of this, since the Athletes’ Village site is mainly located on a former industrial wasteland.
P. I. — How does counteracting global warming underpin all your processes?
I. V. — This is one of the special features of Paris 2024: the Games in France are setting the bar very high in terms of carbon reduction. SOLIDEO is fully involved in this movement, with a strategy of environmental excellence validated by the Board of Directors in 2018, which leads to a strong innovation capacity. The ecological transition is instilled in every stage of our projects, from their design to their life cycle – which includes energy consumption – through the construction phase. Ten years ago, we were still thinking about how to reduce thermal bridges in buildings, i.e. those insulation defects that cause heat losses and increase energy costs during the winter. In the case of the Paris 2024 facilities, the aim is not only to effectively prevent heat losses when temperatures fall, but also to protect users from the effects of heat waves, in particular through the development of a cooling network supplied by geothermal water, without recourse to artificial air conditioning. This project will be highly efficient and useful in the long term. According to climate scenarios developed with Météo France, the climate in Paris by 2050 will be similar to that of Madrid today. We have also set up an innovation and ecology fund to subsidise projects in favour of the ecological transition or accessibility.
P. I. — Are the industrial players in tune with your range of requirements: accessibility, ecological transition, dialogue management, etc.?
I. V. — All of the Olympic contracting bodies follow clear objectives set out in the contracts that bind us, such as the environmental excellence strategy or the employment and regional development charter that were adopted by the SOLIDEO Board of Directors. These ambitions are also among the evaluation criteria applied when analysing the contracts placed with companies. Accordingly, there are penalties if the targets are not met. But so far we have not had to apply these penalties and this is not the spirit of the mission. All the players on board are now engaged in the collective dynamics of success and setting examples. In the Athletes’ Village, the various project developers exchange information on both the successes and difficulties they have encountered. We are aware that the Games will bring increased attention to our facilities. This is an opportunity for France to demonstrate all its expertise in the construction field and in the development of the city of tomorrow. We intend to seize this opportunity collectively.