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New sports complex in Rio hits the target
The venues of the Rio 2007 Pan-American Games were grouped into four great distinct regions of the
city: Barra, ‘Sugar-Loaf’, Maracanã and Deodoro. This strategy was intended to spread and distribute
the direct and indirect benefits of this major international event among all inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro,
through the construction of new venues and infrastructure, as well as improvements of the existing ones.
The Deodoro Sports Complex was designed considering that a similar competition venue and program
would be applied to a future Olympic Games (Rio 2016), including in the same cluster the Shooting,
Equestrian, Archery, Hockey and Modern Pentathlon facilities, being also permanent training areas for
all major national, regional and international competitions.
The cluster is now a formidable world-class legacy, which has successfully triggered the renewal and
further development of this important vector of the city.
The project deals with the complex issues of a
unique suburban context comprising of a military neighborhood, a densely populated favela, a rough
industrial area and a vast wild landscape all mixed together.
The Shooting Center is the Complex’s major venue due to its scale and privileged location, landscaped
on a 125.000m2 site along one of the most important access vectors of the city (a hybrid of avenue and
motorway). The design needed to meet the specific requirements of a major international temporary
event and also be flexible enough to allow the transformation of the complex into a sustainable legacy
afterwards.
Simple but strong horizontal lines predominate in this long concrete sports complex located on a roughly
trapezoidal plot in a breathtaking valley surrounded by mountain peaks. The nighttime periodical pattern
of lighting along the peripheral wall and on the right-angled overhead structures produces an
otherworldly effect of floating in the dark valley against the backdrop of a slowly setting sun.
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