Is the Olympic village in Milan really that bad?

Recently, the completion of the main construction work on the six buildings that make up the Milan Olympic Village was announced, with only the furnishings and surrounding green areas still missing. However, the project has not convinced many people. «Around the world, there are cities that use the Olympics to leave behind a valuable architectural legacy, and then there is Milan, which has decided to build an Olympic Village that looks like it came straight out of a Soviet social housing manual» reads a post from the Instagram page Rivolta Architettonica, which, among other things, highlights poorly executed renovations or new constructions. «A collection of soulless parallelepipeds, whose only merit is reminding us that ugliness is a deliberate choice,» the post continues, describing the Milanese Olympic Village as «anonymous blocks» with «windows arranged with carceral regularity.»

«Is this really the best that Italy’s design capital can offer the world?» asks Rivolta Architettonica regarding the Milan Olympic Village. Lampoon Magazine argues that these «gray high-rises», comparable to «concrete beehives about ten stories tall with no terraces» will fail to adequately represent Milan «and its identity.» Some institutional representatives, however, have welcomed the construction of the Olympic Village: «It will be a great legacy of the Olympics and will benefit the entire community,» commented the president of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana. Meanwhile, journalist Selvaggia Lucarelli, in a widely shared Instagram post, wrote that Milan’s new Olympic Village «looks like a revitalized Chernobyl» and «fully secures the top spot among recent architectural disasters.» She also noted that the project «is not a reversible eyesore. [...] No, this disaster, which makes Scampia’s Vele look appealing, is here to stay.»

What Will Happen to the Milan Olympic Village?

Construction work on the Milan Olympic Village began in early 2023 and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025. The total project cost is estimated at approximately €330 million, financed through both public and private investments, with an excess of about €40 million over the initial budget—mainly due to rising construction material costs, particularly in recent years. The facility, which will accommodate up to 1,700 people during the Olympics, will later become Italy’s largest student residence, offering over 1,500 beds at supposedly regulated prices. The project is located in front of Fondazione Prada, in the former railway yard of Porta Romana, an area in the southeast part of the city spanning at least 190,000 square meters—roughly the size of 27 soccer fields. The project is among Milan’s most ambitious urban regeneration initiatives and is part of an ongoing redevelopment process that has been transforming the area in recent years.

For this reason, many residents fear that the further transformation of the area could lead to «an increase in the cost of living and gentrification, excluding the most vulnerable segments of the population,» writes Lampoon Magazine. On this issue, Milan’s urban planning councilor, Mattia Cugini, speaking to Fanpage, stated that after the Olympics, the project must not turn into «a fortified citadel, inaccessible to most,» but rather into «an urban regeneration and social housing project» aimed at «returning spaces to the city and meeting the needs of its residents,» particularly in relation to «issues concerning the cost of housing.» Milan’s Olympic Village is just one of three being built for the 2026 Winter Games, but it is the only one that will be converted into a residential facility after the events. The second Olympic Village will be in Cortina d’Ampezzo, while the third is planned for Livigno (a Lombard municipality near the Swiss border), which will be repurposed as a training center for Italian athletes after the Olympics.