2016 RIO OLYMPICS: Architectural achievements on display

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The Olympic Games are seen as a celebration of human achievements - and not just in the sporting sense. The competition has also produced some of the world's most spectacular buildings.

The architectural masterpieces designed for the modern Olympics add up to an impressive portfolio. To name just a few: the Amsterdam Olympic stadium; the Helsinki Velodrome; the Cortina ski jump; and the Beijing 'Birds Nest' National Stadium.

Rio's Olympic Park, designed by a British firm, had less grand ambitions. The brief was to make many of the buildings re-usable.

The handball court is an example of what is called nomadic architecture. After the Games, it will be entirely dismantled, and its materials used to help build four schools.

One theme throughout the park is its curved forms - reminiscent of the architecture of Brasilia, Brazil's modernist capital, largely designed by the famed Oscar Niemeyer. He died, aged 104, four years ago.

2016 RIO OLYMPICS: Architectural achievements on display

"We have Niemeyer, who is our 'god,' we could say, as an architect, and I feel when I look at the Olympic Park, I feel that we have a perfume of Niemeyer there,” said Carla Camurati, the cultural director of the Rio Olympics.

But Oscar Niemeyer's nephew, who is also an architect, is somewhat lukewarm about the design quality of the Olympic project. "It doesn't need to be special. It’s just a tennis court," Joao Niemeyer says of one of the buildings.

But he does admire the three conjoined arenas - where events such as basketball and judo are taking place.

"I really liked these because looking at the three buildings they are very well proportioned, and form a beautiful complex," said the architect.

While some dispute the architectural merit of the park, everyone seems to agree that it is another part of the city that has been transformed by the Olympics.

2016 RIO OLYMPICS: Architectural achievements on display

Elsewhere, Rio's port has been entirely re-planned and remodeled. That involved first demolishing an ugly 1950s high-rise motorway that once passed through its historic center. In its place there is now a brand new pedestrian boulevard, one of the social hubs of the Olympics.

"Now even the Niteroi Bridge is beautiful,” said Niemeyer. “Before you couldn't see it."

Back at the Olympic Park, there are festivals every night in the shadow of the stadiums. Locals are enjoying it while it lasts because unlike in previous Olympics, they know that much of the park will be dismantled after the Games.

(By Stephen Gibbs)

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