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Scheduled for July 26 – August 11, the 2024 Paris Olympic Games are almost upon us. And Italian expectations have never been so high. Besides the sports that the country usually excels in, such as swimming and fencing, Italy has lately been very competitive in other disciplines. Athletics and tennis are among them, with tennis phenomenon Jannik Sinner, the current World No. 1, the driving force behind the movement.
Meanwhile, Italy’s athletics team is the best the country has ever had. The Paris Olympics closes a circle that began three years ago in Tokyo, with successes first and foremost by Marcell Jacobs and Gianmarco Tamberi, walkers Stano and Palmisano, and in the men’s 4 x 100 relay. The team has grown stronger since then, with many other top-level performers joining, as Italy’s domination at the European Championships in Rome in June clearly demonstrated.
The Italian athletes at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and their guests will be based at Casa Italia, which is much more than a simple national hospitality house. In fact, Casa Italia has become an internationally recognized brand associated with the excellence of Italian manufacturing and an excellent vehicle for promoting Italian quality.
So, the best in Italian sport, along with Italian culture and business, will come together at Casa Italia, which, reflecting the respect that Italy has earned, is in the heart of Bois de Boulogne, just a stone’s throw from Champs-Élysées, and in one of the symbolic places of the Olympic movement: Le Pré Catelan.
Opened in 1856, Le Pré Catelan, a Napoleon III style pavilion, was an immediate and major success, quickly becoming one of the most visited places in the French capital. But it was on the evening of June 23, 1894, that the elegant pavilion permanently wrote its name into international sport history. It was during the first IOC Congress, held in Paris, that the Comité International Olympique was created. Its most outspoken supporter was the father of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who, within the walls of La Sorbonne University, illustrated his ambitious project. That day, a milestone in the history of the Olympics was laid with the movement plotting a new course, which was celebrated at a sumptuous banquet set up in one of the twelve reception rooms of Le Pré Catelan.
Casa Italia Paris 2024 has transformed Le Pré Catelan – a building whose rooms are flooded with light from its many windows overlooking its garden – into a truly spectacular and emotional journey. A complete work in which nature, art, architecture, furniture design, and lighting design are in very close dialogue.
The layout of the rooms, the overall design, and the restyling of the garden, with the inclusion of typical Italian plants, will breathe life into a very different space inspired by the great interiors of the Italian tradition and the 20th century masters – the people who’ve made Italian creativity famous throughout the world and given shape to the country’s talent for hospitality.
The concept behind Casa Italia stems from the three fundamental principles of the French Constitution (Freedom, Equality, Fraternity), with this reflected in the choice of its name, Ensemble. Inside the pavilion, a sequence of spaces, designed as "rooms within rooms," will weave together different threads to create new dialogues with the existing construction. Nineteen artists, 28 designers, and nine Italian companies contributed to the creation of Casa Italia.
The artists are Vincenzo Agnetti, Marco Bernardi, Giovanni Bonotto, Sergio Breviario, Claire Fontaine, Paolo Delle Monache, Alberto Di Fabio, Agostino Iacurci, Francesco Jodice, Margherita Moscardini, Matteo Nasini, Gabriele Picco, Julie Polidoro, Riccardo Previdi, Edoardo Tresoldi, Marinella Senatore, Stalker, Patrick Tuttofuoco, and Fabio Viale.
The designers include internationally famous names such as Francesco Binfaré, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Jacopo Foggini, Masanori Umeda, Marco Lavit, Patrick Norguet, Marcello Ziliani, Mario Bellini, Piero Lissoni, Patricia Urquiola, Tokujin Yoshioka, Ron Arad, Tord Boontje, Sebastian Herkner, Marc Thorpe for Moroso, Brodie Neill, Monica Armani, Mario Bellini, Antonio Citterio, Gaetano Pesce, Patricia Urquiola, Michael Anastassiades, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Jasper Morrison, Barber & Osgerby, Marcel Wanders, De Pas – D'Urbino – Lomazzi, Ettore Sottsass, Superstudio, Formafantasma, and Nava+Arosio.
Ensemble is also a sustainable project. Temporary installations often lead to a great deal of wasted energy and materials. Casa Italia, however, which was already addressing the issue of sustainability in Tokyo 2020, has been designed with the expectation that all its materials will be recovered and recycled. As a place that weaves together design, art, and sport, Casa Italia’s visual and, in particular, emotional impact will be very strong.
>>> Discover the zero-emission complex built for the 2026 Milan – Cortina Olympics
Rendering by Natura e Architettura / ITS Architettura for CONI
