Japan PM Shinzō Abe scraps Zaha Hadid's Tokyo Olympic stadium design

The Japanese government has scrapped controversial plans for a dramatic Zaha Hadid-designed $2bn (£1.3bn) stadium envisioned as the focal point of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, amid concern about rising costs and a growing public backlash.

The move sparked an immediate response from world rugby’s governing body, which was scheduled to host the 2019 World Cup final in the stadium and will now no longer be able to do so. It said it was “very disappointed” at the decision and would need to consider its options.

“We have decided to go back to the start on the Tokyo Olympics-Paralympics stadium plan, and start over from zero,” said the prime minister, Shinzō Abe, after a meeting at his office with Yoshirō Mori, chairman of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee. Organisers had already decided to scale back the original designs but they will now be scrapped altogether.

“I have been listening to the voices of the people and the athletes for about a month now, thinking about the possibility of a review,” he added. “We must go back to the drawing board. The cost has just ballooned too much.”

He said he had taken the decision after being reassured that there was still time to draw up new plans and complete the new stadium, on the site of the existing national stadium, before the 2020 Olympics. London began building its Olympic stadium in 2007, five years before the Games.

The ambitious design by the award-winning Iraqi-British architect Hadid, likened to a bike helmet, was due to not only host the opening game and final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup but also the 2020 Olympics and then become the new national stadium.

It was a key part of the bid that triumphed over Istanbul and Madrid in 2013 to win the right to host the 2020 Games. But the government has faced growing criticism as the estimated cost for the stadium almost doubled from original estimates to 252bn yen (£1.3bn).

Abe said he had obtained the consent of Mori, a former prime minister, and instructed the sports and Olympics ministers to conduct a review and draw up a new plan.

World rugby’s governing body immediately hit out at the decision and said it would seek urgent clarification of the plans for the 2019 World Cup, awarded as part of a push to grow the sport in new markets.

“World Rugby is extremely disappointed by today’s announcement that the new national stadium will not be ready to host Rugby World Cup 2019 matches, despite repeated assurances to the contrary from the Japan Rugby 2019 organising committee and Japan Sports Council,” said a spokesman.

Hadid, who has designed a similarly divisive stadium for the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar, won the design contest for the Tokyo stadium in 2012, but faced a barrage of criticism over its appearance.

And amid growing international scrutiny of the costs and benefits of hosting a Games – something that the recently elected International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, has promised to focus on – and domestic public pressure, organisers will now be forced to look for a more cost-effective solution.

Jim Heverin, project director at Zaha Hadid Architects, said the rising cost of the stadium was not a result of the design, instead blaming the increasing cost of materials.

“Our teams in Japan and the UK have been working hard with the Japan Sports Council to design a new national stadium that would be ready to host the Rugby World Cup in 2019, the Tokyo 2020 Games and meet the need for a new home for Japanese sport for the next 50 to 100 years,” he said.

“It is not the case that the recently reported cost increases are due to the design, which uses standard materials and techniques well within the capability of Japanese contractors, and meets the budget set by the Japan Sports Council. The real challenge for the stadium has been agreeing an acceptable construction cost against the backdrop of steep annual increases in construction costs in Tokyo and a fixed deadline.”

One Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki, described the design as “like a turtle waiting for Japan to sink so that it can swim away”. The Pritzker prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki, 86, organised a symposium to protest against the scheme, and was joined by fellow leading Japanese architects Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma and Sou Fujimoto. A petition was launched calling for the project to be scrapped.

Last year Hadid hit back at her peers’ complaints, telling Dezeen magazine: “I think it’s embarrassing for them. Many of them were friends of mine, actually the ones which I supported before like Toyo Ito, who I worked with on a project in London. I’ve known him for a long time.

“I understand it’s their town. But they’re hypocrites because if they are against the idea of doing a stadium on that site, I don’t think they should have entered the competition. The fact that they lost is their problem.

“They don’t want a foreigner to build in Tokyo for a national stadium. On the other hand, they all have work abroad. Whether it’s Sejima, Toyo Ito, or Maki or Isozaki or Kengo Kuma.”

The affair has echoes of the controversy that surrounded Hadid’s Aquatics Centre in London, where costs soared threefold to £269m as a result of the ambitious design, and certain elements had to be pared back.

The history of Olympic stadiums is chequered, due to the difficulties in planning for a future beyond the Games. The Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, is rarely used, although it will be pressed into action for the World Athletics Championships this summer, while the legacy issues with the venues built for the 2004 Games in Athens have become a symbol for the subsequent wider malaise in the country.

The the future of London’s Olympic Stadium, where total costs have now soared to £701m thanks to an ambitious plan to convert it into a multi-use venue that will become West Ham United’s home ground, has also proved controversial.

IOC vice-president John Coates, who is chair of the coordination commission that liaises with the host organising committee, said it had been reassured that the review would not affect the delivery of the stadium in time for the Games.

“The national stadium is a national project, which will serve the people of Japan for many years to come. This is why the Japanese government is best placed to decide on what is appropriate for this venue,” he said.

Source: Theguardian.com

By: Owen Gibson

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