Detailed and useful study of Olympic Villages, albeit with several shortcomings

Karin Book
Dept. of Sport Sciences, Malmö University

The Olympic Games have been gaining a lot of attention for a long time. There is a huge amount of literature dealing with the Olympics. Also, since the late 20th century, urban development and major events, mainly the Olympic Games, have been studied extensively. However, I have never come across exactly the topic of Olympic Villages and Urban Development: Analysis of Spatial Models and Geographic Transformations before in a book format. However, the author of the book, Valerio della Sala, has published similar content in articles as well as his doctoral dissertation from 2022. As an urban geographer working in a sport science department, I truly appreciate reading work by other urban geographers who engage with sport-related urban development.

The book has a territorial perspective on urban development in connection to hosting the Olympic Games, including both summer and winter games, with specific focus on Olympic Villages as catalysts for urban transformation and expansion. A central question in the book is this: What urban functions have Olympic Villages taken on throughout history, considering their use in the post-Olympic period?

In the introduction, the author della Sala elaborates on and contextualises the aim of the book. He defines the Olympic Village (OV) as a pivotal Olympic legacy and a key element of urban planning, distinct from the broader Games infrastructure.

The introduction states that the book is organised into four parts. Then, five chapters are mentioned, possibly more (I am not sure), creating uncertainty. It is unclear what the four parts are and how the chapters correspond to them. This is confusing.

Chapter 1 defines and classifies different types of events before moving on to discuss mega-events, with a specific focus on the development of the Olympic Games. della Sala then reports on the transformation of places in relation to mega-events, followed by a discussion on place promotion and image. The final four pages of the chapter consist largely of lists drawn from Kotler (1993). I would have preferred fewer lists, the inclusion of more contemporary sources, and a stronger line of reasoning.

The main section elaborates on various aspects of territorialisation and the production of Olympic territory. However, the discussion becomes confusing: new approaches, models, dynamics, dimensions, attributes, and categories are introduced continuously.

In Chapter 2, which addresses ‘Olympic urbanism,’ the host cities of both the Summer and Winter Games are listed and subsequently linked to different periods of territorial transformation. It would have been valuable if the categorisation presented had been related to the division into transformation phases developed by geographers Essex and Chalkley (1998), which della Sala discusses in Chapter 1. This would have created a clearer link between the chapters. Chapter 2 concludes with an overview of the transformation of transport systems associated with the Olympic Games. In Chapter 2, the author starts to combine two referencing systems, which is confusing. Most references appear in the text (following the Harvard system), while some are placed in footnotes. The rationale for this inconsistency is unclear.

Chapter 3 addresses the territorial impact of the Olympic Games. It is (or should be) a central chapter, aiming to position the conceptual framework in relation to the book’s overall topic. While it introduces several interesting and relevant concepts and highlights important elements of territorial processes, the chapter is unfortunately difficult to digest. The main section elaborates on various aspects of territorialisation and the production of Olympic territory. However, the discussion becomes confusing: new approaches, models, dynamics, dimensions, attributes, and categories are introduced continuously. At times these seem related and overlapping; at other times, the connections are unclear. Categories are occasionally renamed, and the order of aspects or categories shifts, forcing the reader to move back and forth through the text to make sense of it. Occasional writing errors make it even more challenging to follow. Pages 86–87 are good examples of the mentioned shortcomings. That said, the overall idea of unpacking the concept of territorialisation is valuable, but the chapter would have benefited from greater clarity. The latter part of the chapter addresses the Olympic legacy, presenting different types of legacies. The very last section offers some final considerations. Here, della Sala states: “After London 2012, legacy issues became a key element and should be seen as the last phase of the Olympic cycle, but the de-territorialisation phase should not include a new phase of re-territorialisation” (p. 114). What is meant by this, I wonder.

Chapter 4 presents the Olympic Villages (OV) from both a developmental and conceptual perspective. The opening pages provide an interesting background to the ideas and planning behind the OVs over time. The middle part of the chapter consists of requirements for the OV. While this may be necessary information, the large number of itemised lists makes it somewhat unattractive—the chapter contains more than 30 lists. The latter part of the chapter offers an urban analysis of the OVs, which is much more enjoyable, except for some figures (e.g., Figures 11 and 13) that are difficult to interpret. The urban analysis also demonstrates that the Olympic territory has grown and become more complex over time. Although I enjoy reading the text, I wonder about all the concepts introduced in previous chapters; they are not really put into use.

Chapter 5 is an interesting chapter that outlines different strategies and stages behind the evolution of both the Summer and Winter Olympic Villages within the urban fabric of the city or metropolitan region. It is an enjoyable read. Toward the end of the chapter, the various building types and planning strategies are linked to different planning and architectural ideals, such as the garden city, rationalism, and postmodernism. The chapter works well as a coherent unit, but I miss the connections to the phases and concepts introduced in previous chapters. Wouldn’t it be possible, for instance, to relate the phases of Olympic Village development to the phases of major urban transformations shown in Tables 11 and 12? The chapter also contains a large number of COJO references; however, I don’t see these listed in the reference section.

In Chapter 6, case studies of the Olympic Villages from five Olympic Games are presented—two Summer and three Winter editions from the period 2006–2022. The cases were chosen based on their significance in the evolution of the spatial dimension of the Olympic event, which is well justified. The spatial analysis throughout and at the end of the chapter appears accurate. However, considering all the perspectives on Olympic territories and urbanism introduced in the book’s introductory chapters, the analysis of the Olympic Villages comes across as somewhat simplistic and does not clearly build on the theoretical foundation. While the photos are good and valuable, the quality of other figures is poor. I appreciate the idea behind the summarising “models” (e.g., Figures 43–46); however, they could be better integrated into the text with clear references to the figures.

The final chapter, Chapter 7, has a summarising character and aims to “based on the analyses in the previous chapters and the theoretical framework provided by the following book, draw conclusions regarding the evolution of Olympic Villages over time” (p. 243). The conclusions are relevant and useful. There are certainly connections made to the book’s introductory chapters, but these could have been much clearer and should have demonstrated more explicitly how the theoretical and conceptual framework was applied. As it stands, the connections are rather vague and general. I still do not feel that the first hundred pages, in their current form, are fully justified.

When reaching the end of the book, my overall impression is that it was an interesting read that provided valuable insights into the planning and ideas behind the Olympic Villages. However, the book does not fully succeed in combining the theoretical or conceptual framework presented in the first three chapters with the empirical analysis.

Altogether, I find the second part of the book (starting from Chapter 4) considerably stronger and more structured than the first part.

One of my main concerns is that several sections appear outdated, primarily because few, if any, sources from the past 10–15 years have been included. In many instances, references are limited to works from the 1990s or early 2000s. While older sources can and should be used, they should not dominate exclusively. Given that the discourse on urban development and place promotion has evolved and become significantly more complex over the past few decades, this lack of recent scholarship represents a notable limitation. Also, some references are missing in the reference list (e.g., Essex 2017).

Some figures, such as maps, have very poor resolution and are simply unreadable. This is unfortunate, as the figures are an important part of the book. Moreover, the readable figures and tables should also have been reviewed, as they give a somewhat careless impression. For example, see Table 11. Sometimes the line ends with a full stop, sometimes not. In some cases, double spaces are inserted, in others not, and so on. While this is not critical to the content itself, it does affect the overall impression. Also, some of the maps (e.g., Fig 11) are difficult to interpret – even for a geographer.

The text, particularly in the introduction and theoretical part of the book, is sometimes difficult to follow due to unnecessary complexity, lack of clarity, and possibly language-related issues. To give one example, in the brief synopsis of the book, the territorial perspective that permeates the text is justified by the following statement (p. vii):

Observing the territorial impact of the Olympic Villages in the city, introducing new organisation models, and financing the Olympic event are considered essential in analysing the territorialisation and deterritorialisation process linked to the territory and its transformation throughout the weather.

In my view, this creates more confusion than clarity.

Altogether, I find the second part of the book (starting from Chapter 4) considerably stronger and more structured than the first part.

To conclude, I would certainly consider using parts of the book when teaching sport geography and sport event management, as well as in my research on sport- and event-related urban development—albeit with an awareness of its shortcomings. The book could have been a highly valuable contribution to the expanding body of literature on Olympic urban development; however, it falls short for three main reasons. First, it lacks a comprehensive, state-of-the-art reference list. Second, the first three chapters contain a large number of perspectives and concepts but are, in part, too unstructured and unclear. Third, it conveys a somewhat unrefined impression (including text, referencing and figures) and would have benefited from a more rigorous editorial review. Having said this, the book offers foundation and inspiration for researchers, students, and practitioners interested in urban transformations linked to mega-events. Some of the concepts themselves are very interesting, and, not least, the empirical material on the Olympic Villages and the presentation of the different stages in their development.

Copyright © Karin Book 2026