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News: a stadium designed by Zaha Hadid as the centrepiece for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is set to be downsized following criticisms from a band of Japanese architects over its scale and cost.

Zaha Hadid’s competition-winning design for the new 80,000-seat stadium was approved by the Japanese government six months ago, but sports minister Hakubun Shimomura has now backtracked on the decision, telling parliament that that 300 billion yen (£1.8 billion) is “too massive a budget” for the construction.

“We need to rethink this to scale it down,” he said. “Urban planning must meet people’s needs.”

The proposed stadium is set to host the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2020 games, as well as athletics, football and rugby events, but faced opposition earlier this month when architects including Fumihiko Maki, Toyo Ito, Sou Fujimoto and Kengo Kuma organised a symposium calling for the design to be scaled back.

In a statement last week Maki, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1993, said: “The problems I see with the planned stadium all relate to the issue of scale.”

Fujimoto had also voiced his objections to the size, commenting via Twitter: “We are NOT against Zaha. We just think the basic requirement of the competition was too big for the surroundings.”

Zaha Hadid won a competition to design the stadium in November 2012, five months before Tokyo was named as host city for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games.

The Iraqi-born British architect saw off competition from 10 other finalists, including Japanese architects SANAA, Toyo Ito and Azusa Sekkei. The judging panel included Tadao Ando, who commented: “The entry’s dynamic and futuristic design embodies the messages Japan would like to convey to the rest of the world.”

Set to replace the existing Kasumigaoka National Stadium, the new building will be located alongside Kenzo Tange’s iconic 1964 Olympic stadium in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park.

Zaha Hadid Architects previously designed the Aquatics Centre for the London Olympics in 2012.

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to be scaled back appeared first on Dezeen.

News: the forthcoming National Stadium of Japan by Zaha Hadid Architects is now set to become the main sporting venue for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games, following the news that Tokyo will be the host city.

The new 80,000-seat stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2020 games, as well as athletics, football and rugby events.

“The stadium will become an integral part of Tokyo’s urban fabric, directly engaging with the surrounding cityscape to connect and carve the elegant forms of the design,” said Zaha Hadid, after winning a competition to design the stadium in November.

“Our three decades of research into Japanese architecture and urbanism is evident in our winning design and we greatly look forward to building the new National Stadium,” she added.

Set to replace the existing Kasumigaoka National Stadium, the new building will join Kenzo Tange’s iconic 1964 Olympic stadium in Yoyogi Park, which will function as a handball arena this time around. Zaha Hadid Architects will also work on this building, renovating the structure and adding a retractable roof.

Two other venues from the 1964 games – the Nippon Budokan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium – will also be reused, offering venues for judo and table tennis.

Additional arenas will be constructed in downtown Tokyo in an effort to save energy and reduce the need for transport investment, while the Olympic village is proposed on Tokyo’s harbour and will be converted into housing after the games are over.

Tokyo was named as the host city for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games over the weekend and will follow on from Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Find out more about Rio 2016 »

Zaha Hadid Architects previously designed the Aquatics Centre for the London Olympics in 2012, which recently had its two temporary wing-like seating stands removed. See more architecture by Zaha Hadid  »

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around Zaha Hadid’s stadium appeared first on Dezeen.