Skidmore, Owings & Merrill have been selected to plan the Olympic village ahead of the 2026 winter games in Milan following a huge announcement from COIMA SGR and other local planning authorities responsible for the development.

SOM will design the games’ athletes village, which is part of a larger masterplan that will transform the Porta Romana railway yard into a post-Olympic urban hub for the Milanese people. 

The firm beat out 70 other submissions for an ultra-sustainable plan that will add green spaces and six residential buildings that can afterwards be converted into student dormitories and affordable housing units. The Olympic programme will also restore a pair of buildings currently on site and install a suspended forest, giving the village a permanence its designer’s placed an emphasis on during their proposal process.

“Rather than ceasing to be of use after the Olympics, the Porta Romana Olympic Village will ultimately become a vibrant, self-sustaining neighborhood built around the principles of social equity, environmental commitment, wellness, and inclusivity,” SOM’s Colin Koop said in a statement.

SOM had to meet very exacting environmental standards in its design for the village. The EU had set a Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) requirement for the project, and SOM responded with a scheme that will produce 30% of its energy on-site. Solar panels, rooftop gardens and an implementation of the Passive House technique will help reduce C02 emissions on the site by about 40%. 

Construction of the Olympic Village is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2025.