100 years after it last hosted the games, Paris is once again home to 2024 Summer Olympics and just one large-scale permanent building has been created for the occasion: an aquatic sports center that’s defined by an stunning curving concave wooden roof and boasts impressive sustainability features. The Aquatics Centre Paris 2024 was designed by VenhoevenCS and studio Ateliers 2/3/4, and is located in the Saint-Denis district. The roof is impressive, with a span of 89 metres and a curving concave form. This isn’t just to make it look attractive, but actually has a practical reason too. The idea is that it reduces the volume of air inside, correspondingly minimizing the level of air-conditioning required to deal with the humidity that’s inevitable in a swimming pool. Timber was also used on the glazed sections of the exterior to provide shading. Though the building does incorporate concrete, its main structural elements are timber.