An American team has come up with a bold solution to reuse materials from the existing Olympic Stadium roof by creating floating islands on the St. Lawrence River near Île Sainte-Hélène. This project by Missouri-based Populus earned top honors in the design category of the Olympic Roof Reuse Competition, an ideation contest launched by Montreal’s Olympic Park.
In February, Quebec announced that a third roof for the Olympic Stadium would be built by 2028 and that the current roof would be dismantled this summer. At a cost of $870 million, the roof proposed by the firms Pomerleau and Canam will be fixed and must last “at least 50 years” according to the Legault government.
There were no concrete plans for reusing the dismantled elements of the current roof when the announcement was made in February. The competition launched in May is in the spirit of “sustainable development and exploring recycling possibilities,” according to Cédric Essiminy, public relations advisor for the Olympic Park.
The competition was created with the goal of “stimulating the creative and daring side” of design teams, without being able to promise the realization of these projects. “We will look at the feasibility of the ideas, but we especially want this competition to generate interest from organizations or municipalities.” In the event that organizations are interested in one of the projects, the Olympic Park would be “ready to provide the materials,” explains Mr. Essiminy.
Participating teams had to find a use for three of the component groups: cables, membranes and connectors. Each team was composed of at least one member of a professional order or association in the fields of planning and design, for the professional category, and at least one full-time student in a related university program for the student category. They had no monetary or legislative constraints to respect, only the use of materials from the roof.
The competition attracted 54 proposals. Nine teams were awarded prizes by the jury composed of experts from the field. The competition continues with a public vote until August.
“The goal is for people to feel involved in the project. To see if there is any enthusiasm. It’s the Olympic Stadium for Quebecers, they definitely have their say,” says the spokesperson for the Olympic Park.
Among the nine projects, several finalists suggest using the old roof elements to create shaded spaces and gathering places. A project by a student team, Ionosphère, proposes using the components to create filters to protect Montrealers from air pollution, while serving as “visual landmarks for the urban landscape,” according to the team.
On a different note, the MODULVE_V project in the professional category suggests reusing the structural elements of the old roof to create structures that are useful to Montrealers. On the riverfront, the bridge-like module would take on different configurations and be transformed into a bike path, pedestrian promenade or reception area for urban microforests.
The finalist proposals are all available and detailed on the competition website.
In the meantime, work on the new roof continues to progress, and Mr. Essiminy assures that the work is respecting “the planned schedule.” “We are still planning to dismantle it in the summer,” he says. The roof components will be preserved after dismantling in case a plan for their reuse comes to fruition, according to the spokesperson.