Paris’s Place de la Concorde is no stranger to scaffolding, as the site of more than 1,000 beheadings during the French Revolution. Two centuries on, the scaffold has returned. Teetering mountains of metal poles now fill the ceremonial square, forming a dozen gigantic tribunes – awaiting not executions but an extravaganza of urban sports. Where royal heads once rolled, athletes’ heads will soon be spinning, as the site gears up to host almost 40,000 spectators for the breakdancing, BMX and skateboarding competitions of this year’s Olympics.
It is one of the chief examples of how Paris hopes to host the leanest Games ever, using temporary staging to turn the city’s famous landmarks into photogenic backdrops for the televised spectacle – and leave as few new permanent structures as possible in its wake.
