“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.”
Last month Isozaki, 83, wrote an open letter to the Japan Sports Council, the government body in charge of plans for the 2020 Games, in which he attacked the “distorted” process that has led to “a dull, slow form”.
— theguardian.com
9 Comments
At "loggerheads". Nice, Alexander!
I have to fully pass the credit on to Robert Booth, the author of the Guardian source article. ;)
“like a turtle waiting for Japan to sink so that it can swim away”
Thats not a internet troll comment. Arata Isozaki said that.
Actually, one of the more interesting aspects before the redesign of the project was its connections that loops around the building, plus it loses much of its dynamism and swooping lines after the redesign. This does pose the question: after the redesign (owing to scale and money which the jury obviously didn't take note of and which later became a problem: here, the jury fucked up, not the designer), was Zaha's project = again, after this compromising redesign-really the best of the proposals that were submitted? I mean, you don't choose a design as being the best...then ask for it to be so drastically redesigned...and hence not comparing that result again against the other submitted proposals. Perhaps that an integral weakness in competition based projects.
Whatever one's view on the design, a big part of the problem is the jury's, not really the designer...who could only edit (and therefore compromise) her design. What was more elegant, looks more turgid, what was more complex became more simplistic.
Looks like the polish is coming off the turd - I hope it's more than just xenophobic nationalism.
I wonder how well Schumacher's bullshit translates to Japanese?
the original design was much better than what came of the redesign. More than that, the landscape design was very good earlier and now is not good at all.
I am hoping it changes because in spite of all the complaint that this is a sacred site of some sort, it is actually one of the least attractive places in the city. The main land use currently is fenced off sports fields, followed by parking lot and elevated highway. The building itself I am sure will be nice enough, if not as fantastically interesting as originally. But the irony is all the argument has removed the urban improvement side of things so this addition will have a worse impact than it would have if they had just left it alone. That was surely not the intent, but it is what Isozaki is saying. In that regard I agree with him. This is a chance to right some of the abuses heaped on the site over a hundred years and it looks like now those corrections will not happen. Such a great pity. The original design was about urbanism. This one is just a building (possibly architecture).
Zaha complaining of hypocrisy is fair enough. Except that Maki declined to join the original competition because he thought it was wrong to begin with, and I have not heard Sejima say anything bad about this project ever. In which case, nuance on both sides makes the headlines sort of stupid. Perhaps she can rail at Ito a bit if she really feels the need.
how many ways can you make a building look like something else?
This is why I hate most of the starchitect bullshit.. in their view, a building absolutely must reference another form...without it looking like something, there really isn't a concept.
I quite like Zaha's curves, they remind my of high tech sneakers, which I quess is most of them nowadays. There's a Mendelsonian quality to them that I'll always love. In the middle of a city block it might be a bit much, but what is an isolated giant stadium suposed to be but a beautiful sculpture. Granted, curves aren't for everyone.
Here are some shoes from Zaha:
If you haven't eaten lately you can click here for more.
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