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In an architectural "hail Mary" move, Zaha Hadid Architects put out a 23-minute video stating their case for Japan to keep their embroiled design for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Stadium. When Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe announced approximately five weeks ago that ZHA's design was being dropped... View full entry
Whenever one of the millions of buildings under construction flanking the High Line hit a certain height, the developer is required to put up a shed over the park [...] except, it seems, when it's for a building by [...] Zaha Hadid. Then it's not just a shed protecting passersby, it's a 112-foot long sculptural installation—in this case entitled Allongé—designed by Hadid to give a sneak preview of the swooping forms of her building, which has just hit High Line level [...]. — ny.curbed.com
Photos of ZHA's Allongé scaffolding/canopy by Scott Lynch. Head over to Curbed NY to see more images.The initial announcement of Hadid's High Line condo building on Archinect in 2013 was a topic not without much commentary. View full entry
For Screen/Print #36: Amelia Taylor-Hochberg highlighted an essay by "Well, Well, Well", the fortieth issue from Harvard Design Magazine, which is focused on the "landscape of health and illness". News Carter B. Horsley criticized The New LaGuardia Airport: as being Not Functional, Not... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects has been announced as the winner of the Danjiang Bridge competition. Sited at the mouth of the Tamsui River, the bridge will provide a critical link between several highways on Taiwan's northern coast.The Danjiang Bridge is intended to bring economic growth to Taipei's Port... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects is not going away quietly, but cogently. In a statement forwarded by the Japan Olympic Committee, ZHA details the origins of what would eventually become the budget fracas over the cancelled New National Stadium, noting that early in the design process "we advised the JSC... View full entry
According to a statement issued on Zaha Hadid's website, the project-ending cost of the New National Stadium is not the fault of the design, but rather the "inflated costs of construction in Tokyo, a restricted and uncompetitive approach to appointing construction contractors, and a restriction on... View full entry
Zaha Hadid, the architect whose plans for the National Stadium have been scrapped, hopes to remain involved in the planning for the centerpiece for the 2020 Olympics, the Japan Sport Council said Thursday.
The council said Jim Heverin, a director of Hadid’s company, conveyed her wishes on a fact-finding visit to Japan following the cancellation. [...]
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Japan faces a ¥5.9 billion bill for the work done so far and contracts already signed.
— japantimes.co.jp
Despite Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pulling the plug on Hadid's stadium design last week due to the unforeseen astronomical costs, the Japan Sport Council is nonetheless on the hook now for ¥5.9 billion (nearly $48 million) for the work that had already been done so far by various... View full entry
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... View full entry
Two massive arches that form the backbone of the stadium's roof, a feature that critics blamed for raising construction costs, will remain part of the design. — usatoday.com
When confronted with Zaha Hadid's too-big and too-costly design for the 2020 Olympic National Stadium, Tokyo officials decided to go ahead with the designs anyway – or else, add "too late" to that list of descriptors. Any additional major changes to the design (Hadid already scaled back the... View full entry
Earlier today, Patrik Schumacher of Zaha Hadid Architects posted a nearly 1,400 word polemic on Facebook denouncing contemporary architecture criticism and defending the “star-system” that has been instrumental in his firm’s success in the last few decades. Instead of “seeing conspicuity... View full entry
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he wants Japan to showcase its cutting-edge technology in the new national stadium being built for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Abe made the remark on Monday at a meeting with a study panel on the stadium. [...]
Prime Minister Abe [...] said he wants to hear people in other countries calling the new stadium great.
Some people have raised concerns about high maintenance costs for the new facility.
— NHK WORLD News
While some of that Japanese cutting-edge technology (for example 3D projection) will be found in the entertainment department, other features, like facial recognition, could enable ticketless entrance and serve security and counterterrorism efforts.Previously View full entry
Zaha, you have said that architecture is not for people who want an easy life. Is this not the case for anyone who wants to excel in his or her job?
There are other professions that are very difficult, but architecture is particularly difficult because your career is reliant on the people you work with, and that's the first hurdle. The second hurdle is the people you work with as a client. You have no control over the developer or the economics.
— huffingtonpost.com
It keeps raining fiber-reinforced concrete at Vienna's latest educational facility: A large concrete facade panel weighing 80 kilograms (176 pounds) came crashing down from the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Library and Learning Center at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, reports... View full entry
“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
Previously View full entry
It was supposed to represent a dynamic future vision for Tokyo, flaring up out of the city’s Meiji Jingu park in sinuous white arcs. But Zaha Hadid’s design for the 2020 Olympic stadium [...] now facing its fiercest public attack yet. [...]
In a lengthy open letter to the Japan Sports Council [...] Isozaki rails against the “distorted” process that has led to “a dull, slow form, like a turtle waiting for Japan to sink so that it can swim away”.
— theguardian.com
Previously View full entry
