After multiple reassurances that Zaha Hadid Architect's design for the Tokyo Olympic Stadium would continue, despite skyrocketing costs since its 2012 announcement and constantly decreasing public favor, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced today that the stadium would be scratched in favor of a complete redesign. The stadium, which was most recently estimated to cost ¥252 billion, had become more and more expensive due to rising construction costs in Japan, NHK World reports.
Zaha Hadid Architects issued a statement on their website responding to the decision, stating that the rising costs were not due to the design per-se, and that the real difficulty was agreeing on an acceptable construction cost. The statement expressed confidence, based on past major stadium experience (such as for the 2012 London Olympic Games), that ZHA could reliably build their design in a cost-effective manner. Public opinion in Japan was not enamored with the design – it had even spawned a satirical internet meme.
In deciding that the stadium's design must go "back to the drawing board", it won't be open in time to host the 2019 Rugby World Cup, but Abe is confident that it will still be finished in time to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. One of the big draws for Tokyo to host the Games was their ZHA-designed stadium, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga admitted to a press conference earlier today.
The "from scratch" redesign will be decided through an international competition that incorporates both design and construction costs, after Abe's government completes a new plan for the stadium by fall of 2015 – which will include a cap on construction cost, according to The Japan Times.
Switching gears on the design this late in the game does not reflect well on Abe's approval ratings – according to The Japan Times, in a report conducted between July 10 -13, "the approval rate of the Abe Cabinet fell to an all-time low of 40.1 percent, down 5.7 percentage points from the previous month, while the disapproval rate surged to a new high of 39.5 percent, up 5.5 percentage points."
Update:
Architect Tadao Ando, who oversaw the Japanese committee's selection of ZHA's design, is also facing blame for the project's ballooning costs, Reuters reports. Recently, he was absent from a key meeting for the design due to surgery, and has generally been less visible due to his health. His role on the committee was mainly for the selection of the stadium's winning design, which Retuers suggests was partly motivated by Japan's loss of the 2016 Stadium to Rio de Janeiro. Ando maintains he is not responsible for the stadium's increased cost.
h/t to CNN, The Japan Times, NHK World and Reuters
33 Comments
What a disaster.
Ando
Do you think that if they choose a Japanese starchitect now, its going to validate the perception that Zaha's ethnicity factored into the criticism she received?
No but it may validate the perception that Ando is a better architect.
A victory for municipal tax bases everywhere. A sign that the public is no longer interested budget-hobbling single-use structures...
The world is holding architects to higher expectations of budget control on projects. Calatrava learned this in NY, now Zaha in Tokyo. If you get paid millions for a design, you should be able to hire good cost estimators and value engineers. No excuses for why architects are not responsible for the budget on a project.
munich stadium
In the above I meant to say the Berlin stadium has been in use since 1936 and the Los Angeles has been in use since 1923. Is there a structure in Japan that could be updated for the games?
Probably, however that is logical and fiscally responsible and has no place here.
"If you get paid millions for a design, you should be able to hire good cost estimators and value engineers. No excuses for why architects are not responsible for the budget on a project."
If your contract doesn't have additional services for non-standard cost-estimating, it's not an excuse, it's a reality: architects are not responsible for the creation of the budget on a project.
But don't let the facts move you from your misguided perception.
Volunteer, Donna posted an article in another thread which explained there was another stadium on this site capable of retrofit for use. Toyo Ito made a proposal to renovate it for the Olympics.
However in the rush to prepare this site earlier this year it was demolished.
There've been several articles in the news lately showing how badly middle-class Japanese are suffering due to the inflation brought on by Abe's new economic policies, which have done little to improve wages. The cost escalations for this stadium are probably due in large part to the large increases in construction costs being projected over the next five years. What can an architect (or anyone else) do about that?
Those who suggest that architects are shirking some responsibilty here fail to observe that no one else is good at cost control either. Bridges, power plants and rail systems go over budget all the time too - its the nature of big, politically-driven projects with long time tables. Its simply unrealistic to expect a government to project realistic budgets; they would be rejected immediately.
They probably used cost as a false excuse to get rid of Zaha's design, which is too say that finally swurvy curvy parametric design is finally falling out of favor. At least its not as vagina looking as the one in Qatar.
That's too bad, I thought the design was attractive. A retractable roof does seem a bit fancy but if there's a place for her kind of sculptural style, it's in stand alone structures like this.
Client says the budget is $150 Million then it is your fiduciary responsibility that your design can reliably be built WITHIN the budget which mean you design so construction cost should be able to be built at 50% of the budget because total project cost should stay within 75% of the budget. The rest is contingency buffer.
If I was designing a project with a discerned budget than the cost of material and labor for construction should be able to be built within 50% of the budget. The overhead & profit of the contractor, me services fee, my consultants and the engineer fee should be between 66.67% and 80% of the budget. 20-25% of the budget is contingency for cost over-run.
Architects are poor at doing this when they don't know anything about construction or what cost of construction, the labor involved, due to lack of construction experience which SHOULD be a required experience to become an architect.
Can we see a comparison ROB4?
ROB4, you're right it doesn't quite look as vagina look but still it does have a bit of that.
Here's the Qatar stadium and I can't resist and I can see why they resist Zaha's design because it still looks too strikingly.... like a vagina.
and
PS: the image above the one in Japan is someone else's photo... but can't resist.. just for the kind of typical readership and forum users here.... that are fascinated with phallics and vaginas.
Back in the day there would be a forest planted around it. In this day and age it's a plaza shaved clean.
Balkins "phallic" is an adjective, not a noun - hence there is no word "phallics".
"Phallus" is the noun: plural "phalli".
I see what you did there Miles...
^ Slick and smooth, eh?
Ok... Phallus.... or.... Phalli.
Now, I think the audience is lost because they don't know or recognize the word.
So here:
just for the kind of typical readership and forum users here.... that are fascinated with phallic buildings and buildings/structures that looks like vaginas.
That toilet seat if just wrong...it doesn't have the Toto lines, and I doubt if it has a remote that goes with it for a blast of warm air.
as a single man I would never turn a Vagina down.
Japan! what's wrong with you!
Geisha Geisha...sup! and why do you blur all your porn damnit.
seriously....it's about time a respectable culture asked to be respected!
Zaha is not to blame. Neither is ando
There is a lot to criticize on this project but the cost issue is camouflage
For some context on the politics check this out:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/18/national/politics-diplomacy/plunging-cabinet-support-forced-review-olympic-stadium-analysts/#.Vaxi1FLXfCQ
Japan preparing for war, the restarting of a nuclear power plant plus lots of problems with inflation and taxes are more important than the design itself.
As always architecture is almost never about building.
I think she is trying to tell us something about procreation...
Those Japanese and their twitter meme's...
Let's just build a walmart there and forget about the whole thing.
are wal-marts the blow-up dolls of architecture?
So in order to increase his dwindling popularity Abe throws voters a bone and bows to public resentment over Zaha's design. Therefore it's not Zaha's fault for designing this colossal turd or her rep in regard to budget multipliers and it's not Ando's fault for approving it. It's all about war and nuclear power. Thanks for clearing that up, Will.
Forget the cost... that is such an uninspired design. It looks like some kid cranked that out after a day's work of fiddling in Maya. It is clear that Zaha has done a few too many stadiums. And this is coming from someone who likes a lot of her work. Japan deserves much better than this.
looks like some of the fantasy league stuff we did at the video game studio I worked at - we used Maya, and would bust out a stadium/da,y all of the Major league stadiums then do fantasy league stuff and we would do these Zaha Libeskind mashups - maybe Zaha and Schumaker should design games as well as shoes and stuff.
Tough not to think of Gypsy on MST3K...
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