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The coronavirus pandemic has forced the Olympics’s first postponement: Tokyo 2020, its name unchanged, will now take place in July 2021 if it takes place at all. Yet all around the Japanese capital is the legacy of another Olympics: the 1964 Summer Games, which crowned Tokyo’s 20-year transformation from a firebombed ruin to an ultramodern megalopolis. — The New York Times
NYT art critic Jason Farago takes a look back at the now iconic architectural and visual design — and its transformative power — of the 1964 Olympic Summer Games in the Japanese capital, 19 years after WWII had ended. "Those first Tokyo Olympics served as a debutante ball for... View full entry
Futuristic megacities and out-of-this-world cityscapes created for Japanese animated films have influenced video games, films, as well as architects and designers. Similar to the work of Syd Mead and his highly influential artwork, Japanese anime has developed a special relationship with how... View full entry
Veteran International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound told USA TODAY Sports Monday afternoon that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are going to be postponed, likely to 2021, with the details to be worked out in the next four weeks. [...]
“It will come in stages,” he said. “We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”
— USA Today
While the IOC has not responded directly to veteran member Dick Pound's statement from today, the Committee did signal its commitment to scenario-planning for "changes to the start date of the Games" yesterday amid new outbreaks of COVID-19 in IOC member countries. This development comes only days... View full entry
Construction of all new permanent venues for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics is now complete, organizers said Friday, as preparations continue despite worries over the new coronavirus outbreak.
The announcement comes as the International Olympic Committee insisted this week that a potential cancellation or postponement of the Games due to the virus was "not mentioned" at a meeting of their Executive Board.
— Japan Today
According to Japan Today, the last venue to be completed was the Tokyo Aquatics Center for swimming, diving, and artistic swimming. It will seat 15,000 fans for the Olympic and Paralympic games. "The main pool features a movable wall allowing the 50-meter facility to be converted into two... View full entry
In a sense, Fujimoto’s is the conceptual art of contemporary architecture, born out of a relentless desire to interrogate, in building after building, variations on the same set of ideas. To spend time with him is to dwell in a discursive world constructed entirely of tensely opposing categories — inside and outside, individual and society, private and public, the natural world and the urban environment — out of which emerges this serene, unruffled but somehow dynamic architecture. — T Magazine
Writing in The New York Times' T Magazine, Nikil Saval takes an indepth and nuanced look at the work and trajectory of Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. In the thought-provoking profile, Saval works to uncover and convey the dualities that drive Fujimoto's design work, including "Fujimoto’s... View full entry
Ace Hotel Kyoto is getting ready to welcome its first guests, and just in time for the high-travel season for the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer. The boutique hotel chain collaborated with Kengo Kuma and Commune Design for the 213-room hotel, which is part new-build and part historic structure... View full entry
Overlooking vast rice fields, scattered farmhouses, and mountains, sits a quaint wooden residence designed by Japan-based Motoki Ishikawa Architect & Associates Inc.. Located in Yokote, Japan, the design challenge came in addressing the area's dynamic climate where long winters invite heavy... View full entry
Super Nintendo World, the Mario-themed expansion to Universal Studios, is shaping up to be one of the most interesting and tech-infused theme park attractions to date.
The park, launching ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as part of Universal Studios Japan in the city of Osaka, will feature wearable wrist bands called “Power Up Bands” that will sync with a smartphone app and track digital activities while you walk around
— The Verge
After breaking ground on its ambitious high-tech theme park, Super Nintendo World, in 2017, Universal Studios Japan unveiled more details this week about the anticipated destination slated to open in Osaka this summer. "A life-size, living video game" -- Thierry Coup shows us the new app used to... View full entry
BIG has drawn up the masterplan for the “Toyota Woven City”, which will transform a 175-acre former factory site in the city of Susono in Shizuoka into a new smart city that will be fully “dedicated to the advancement of all aspects of mobility”. Bjarke Ingels and Toyota CEO Akio... View full entry
Architects dabbling in fashion design is nothing new. From Zaha Hadid to Santiago Calatrava and Virgil Abloh, shoe brands often turn to architects for inspiration. In the latest example, Japanese footwear brand ASICS has teamed with Kengo Kuma to design a new running shoe that's said to marry... View full entry
Step into the newly reopened Okura Tokyo, and you might be forgiven for believing in the existence of time travel.
That’s because the lobby, where John Lennon or Steve Jobs might have relaxed when they stayed, was demolished four years ago, to the dismay of patrons of the iconic hotel. And now it’s back, seemingly plucked from the past. During the hiatus, craftsmen recreated and restored the gold-hued space adorned with discreet touches [...].
— Bloomberg
Bloomberg writer Reed Stevenson visits Japan's iconic and recently reopened Okura Tokyo (formerly Hotel Okura) after undergoing a substantial $1 billion makeover. Fearing that the unique and charming mix of 1960s mid-century modern and traditional Japanese architecture, especially in the lobby... View full entry
Japan's preeminent art and architecture prize, the Praemium Imperiale, today announced the newest round of laureates with the award in the Architecture category going to Tod Williams and Billie Tsien this year. Established in 1986, the New York-based practice Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects... View full entry
The idea of a workspace has transformed over the past decade, in large part, due to the emergence of co-working spaces like WeWork and Industrious. The shift has fueled the proliferation of the "open office," and the many documented problems associated with the setup. Is the pendulum ready to... View full entry
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects (PCP) and Japanese "urban landscape developer" Mori Building have unveiled renderings for a new "modern urban village" slated for Tokyo's Minato City. PCP has designed the project's three towers, including the project's centerpiece, a 1,080-foot spire slated to... View full entry
Tatsuyuki Maeda, a member of the Nakagin Capsule Tower Building Conservation and Regeneration Project, hopes the building will be spared both for its place in architectural history and because of its popularity with tourists. If he had his way, it would not only be preserved but improved, restored to its original state. — CityLab
Reports about the fate of the Kisho Kurokawa-designed Nakagin Capsule Tower — and likely most popular example of the Japanese Metabolist Architecture movement — have been from swaying from planned demolition to possible protection in recent years. Marie Doezema's CityLab piece tries to... View full entry
