Urbanism and Geography of the Olympic Winter Games
2012 Urbanism and geography of the Olympic Winter Games Mgr. Igor Kováč Národné športové centrum 6. júna 2012 Urbanism and geography of the Olympic Winter Games Introduction This contribution focuses on urban and spatial aspects in organisation of the Olympic Winter Games. It explains the role of urbanism within this process, implying the reasons which allow its distinguishing as an “Olympic” phenomenon. In this regard, an Olympic geography will be defined and its role will be further explained, resulting into identification of Olympic territory as a common platform of the both. Consequently, the concept of Olympic urbanism model will be introduced as a result of application of geographical approaches in studying the Olympic urbanism, in order to provide a historical overview and final synthesis of the factors determining spatial organisation of the Olympic Winter Games in host territories. Olympic urbanism Without any intention to exclude its environmental specifics, the Winter Games as a sort of mega-event can be clearly understood “...as an important urban phenomenon of our time...an one-time urban event with increasing prevalence as an urban strategy...” (Hiller, 2000: 185). Of course, the mountainous specifications of the Winter Games cannot be neglected as they essentially modify this strategy. In any way, however, it is the urbanism, a set of scientific and artistic methods and procedures used in the formation of human settlement, which represent those strategies. The main concern of urbanism, as one of its definitions says, is the formation and composition of urban organism and wider territorial units, following the quality of the human living environment, affected by natural, material, cultural and social aspects, highlighting the concrete population needs as its direct starting point.
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