Signing on to host the Olympics is a big investment—in both infrastructure and money. The 2012 and 2014 Olympics, for example, each cost upwards of $16 billion to create the various facilities needed for the games. And in many instances, those buildings are ultimately left empty afterward, costing the host city that much more in continuous maintenance and upkeep, or, alternatively, simply being left to decay into the landscape.
Berlin is a perfect example of this; the city hosted the Olympics in 1936 and afterwards, the Olympic Village was left to crumble in the surrounding wilderness. Recently, though, funding has been approved to turn the former athlete residences into new apartments, breathing new life into the 135-acre site.
The buildings that are reused usually continue to operate as originally designed – hosting sporting events. Only occasionally do host cities get more creative. Here are four locations that took a different approach, repurposing their Olympics structures for decidedly less sporty uses.
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/four-olympic-stadiums-unexpected-afterlives-180967817/#VO5DE0AW4HetsCkR.99
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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