‘Greenest ever Games’: how the Paris Olympics hopes to inspire a new era of global sporting events

The aquatics centre in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis is one of only a handful of new sites constructed for the 2024 Games. Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Beneath the undulating wooden roof of the Paris Olympics’ new aquatics centre, the architect Laure Mériaud hoped the groundbreaking low carbon building would bring a kind of calm to the intersection of motorways near the Stade de France stadium in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

“It’s not just about technical innovation,” she said. “It’s about creating a more pleasant, greener space for local people’s daily lives here after the Games.”