Games of the XXXI Olympiad – Rio 2016 Summer Olympics

Planning the Village that will host the Olympic movement in South America

The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janiero will mark the first time a South American city has hosted an Olympic Games. More than 10,500 athletes from over two hundred (200) countries will descend on the athletes village and compete in the thirty-four (34) competition venues clustered in four (4) zones within the city: Copacabana, Deodoro, Maracanã and Barra da Tijuca. Barra da Tijuca, well known for its beaches and modernised lifestyle, will play host to the majority of the competition venues and the athletes village.

The EPG team has been working with the Rio 2016 organising committee, providing operational and technical advisory services in the strategic planning phase of the athlete village. Being leaders in the delivery of athlete village operations we provided input into key functional areas and operational processes including budget planning, event security, training, workforce planning & recruitment and detailed space planning of permanent infrastructure and event overlay & infrastructure.

Our team met with all Rio 2016 functional areas in the athletes village to review existing operational planning, equipment and labour resource allocations. Following this review we were able to optimise the resource allocation and refine the layout and operations for both the Olympic and Paralympic period. Utilising this information, we worked with architects and engineers to complete detailed space planning for the village and integrate all of the functional spaces into the village master plan.

As a result of our work in the operational design review, we were additionally able to plan the organisational structure, outline recruitment timelines and complete budget planning for procurement, recruitment and operations within the village. An important part of our work in Rio has also been to mentor and conduct training programs with the existing functional area management teams.