Olympic Legacy Park 2016

By Patrick Londrigan

Currently in our second semester, of the Masters in Architecture program at SIU, we are working on a new addition to the 2016 Olympic Legacy Park in Rio de Janeiro.  The park is currently designed but we are changing 37 acres to the most southern tip of the existing peninsula. We are currently finishing up the research portion of the project and starting to move on to the master planning of the site.

Our master plan is a major portion of the project. It consists of many square meters of different types of buildings to be included in the plan.  Those buildings needing to be included are: multiple residential units, a hotel, child care, health clinic, a school, multiple small retail and restaurant spaces, a community recreation center, and a police substation.  Also to be included will be multiple parks and the correct amount of parking.  We will be working in groups to create the most efficient layout of these buildings and to design the overall best master plan.

The individual portion of the project is to design one of two types of buildings: a hotel of one of three types a residential buildings, a high rise, garden apartments, or live work apartments.  Having never designed either of these types of buildings in any of my past studios I was having a hard time trying to decide which building I wanted to design.  Looking to my future, I believe that I would enjoy designing live work apartment buildings.  The idea of designing a building where you can do everything in one place seems to be the future of our society in larger urban areas.  They are efficient and a space saver in a larger cities.

The idea for the apartment at this time will be a live work apartment complex.  Included will be a parking garage at the base of the building, from there will be the retail area for restaurants and stores, and then above all of these spaces will be multiple housing units for residents.  Those housing units will include single room units, two-room units, and three-room units, with the possibility of a four-room unit for larger housing.  Keeping green design in mind I would also like to include a green roof a top of the building.  The roof will be accessible to all of its occupants, so they can get outside and enjoy the Brazil weather.