Although initially scheduled to begin in January, the process for the selection of the “General Urban Plan” for the Rio 2016 Olympic Park has finally been announced, with an international competition to open on May 2.
The Olympic Park will house the majority of the facilities to be used in 2016, including the Maria Lenk aquatic park and the main indoor facility called ´Rio Arena´, as well as the broadcast centre and the accredited media centre.
According to the competition´s official site, the Plan will be the instrument that defines the occupation of the area, outlining public spaces, public squares and parks, and the volume of the main equipments, as well as indentifying areas for future real estate developments.
The two key bodies behind the project, Rio de Janeiro’s city council and the Brazilian Institute of Architects (Rio chapter), added that the Olympic Park will establish the foundations of a sustainable district, and will be one of the main urban legacies for Rio de Janeiro stemming from the 2016 Games.
The competition has been designed to reach a wide range of international professionals and to seek creative solutions that “unite quality, functionality, and sustainability, which should be joined by use, social, cultural and environmental values”.
The competition rules and entry procedures will be released through the site, here, on May 2.
NOTE: The new format is a significant change to the original idea for the competition. As reported in January, the initial plan was to have two phases: evaluation of the portfolio and heads of agreement for the project of architectural team entrants, following which eight groups would be selected to participate in the full competition, to be decided by the end of June.