Day 8: Olympia Park Venturing

Day 8 began early with a trip to Olympia Park and ending at the BMW Museum nearby. A long day of walking, it was well worth it as we learned so much about about two completely different examples of German architecture.

My favorite of the two was definitely Olympia Park and learning about what went into building it for the 1972 Summer Games. Acting almost like a city in itself, the area had an Olympic village where players, like civilians, simply walked over to the arena to compete. Back then, security was very little and this the competitors could actually mingle with civilians quite easily. Here, the Olympics were also first televised and televised in color, setting the stage for future games and broadcasting globally. For the first time, the audience for the games was a global one and not simply restricted to a live one. 

Due to the excitement and neeto visit surrounding Olympia Park, the subway system in Munich saw tremendous expansion. The designers of the park wanted its landscape to represent Bavaria for visitors, so the environment is filled with rolling hills, lakes, and greenery to give a feel of a true Bavarian environment. Little did many visitors know, the hills were actually made possible thanks to rubble piles from WWII. Despite that, the landscape and feel of the park is absolutely pristine and immaculate.

Inside the park, it was cool to take a step back in time and see how the games were viewed then versus now. To me, it felt like a relatively small-scale arena compared to what Olympic game viewers sit in today. It wasn't over-the-top or fancy. While the structure covering the track area is quite amazing and was a huge development in architecture, the rest of the arena is quite plain, bringing attention to the track and the athletes. I personally think this was a smart design choice as the track and athletes should be the focal point of a sporting arena.

The day was incredibly fun and it was great to see how in the arena and museum, the architects designed strategically to bring attention to what they wanted, whether athletes on a track or cars in a showroom.