Greening the Olympic village

View of Vancouver from south shore of South-East False Creek

Vancouver's Olympic Village has been built on South-East False Creek, just across the water from venues like the white-domed BC Place (left) and GM Place (right) that will host the opening, closing and medal ceremonies.

View of several buildings nearing completion.

The buildings are designed to try to meet the highest environmental standards in terms of energy and water use.

Front of block of flats with special windows .

Thanks to the use of special windows, and design features to keep the sun out in summer, these blocks of flats consume 50% less energy than standard buildings in Vancouver.

Thick layers of insulating foam help keep the heat in in winter, and out in summer. This, too, contributes to the buildings' 50% energy savings.

Community Centre of the Olympic village, near shore of False Creek.

The Community Centre is set to achieve the "platinum" grade of the LEED environmental standards, organisers say. That is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the North American standard for green construction.

Ian Smith, Manager of Development, inside the Community Centre

One technique to help achieve this is to use superior insulation for the walls, as the City of Vancouver's Manager of Development for the site, Ian Smith (right) points out.

Kitchen interior, with cooker, in-built espresso machine, and more.

Two of the blocks of flats were designed by Vancouver-born architect Arthur Erickson. This is the future kitchen of one of the penthouse flats.

View of Vancouver from penthouse flat, with mountains in background.

The penthouse flats are expected to sell for several million dollars after the Olympics. This is the north-facing view that that money will buy.

Front of social housing block, with yellow-green cladding.

A small proportion of flats, like these lime-green ones, will be available at what organisers say will be affordable rather than market rents to ensure a mixed community.

Former salt factory being turned into a pub.

The Olympic Village will be home to 3,000 people. They will have shopping and recreation facilities on site, to reduce the need for cars, and so help the environment. This former salt factory is becoming a gastro-pub.

View of nearly finished block of flats in the Olympic village.

Work is nearing completion, like on this Arthur Erickson block of flats. The City of Vancouver is expected to hand the Village over to the Olympic Organising Committee in November. It will revert to the City after the Games.