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Zaha Hadid Architects has admitted it has made changes to its design for the stadium that will be the centrepiece of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
The firm has faced hostility in Japan with critics complaining that the proposed 80,000-seat stadium is too big, too costly and clashes with Tokyo’s urban planning.
At the weekend, 500 protestors marched around the existing National Stadium to demonstrate over plans to replace it with Hadid’s proposal [...].
— bdonline.co.uk
3xn was chosen by the International Olympic Committee as the architectural partner to design the new IOC Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC selected the Danish firm after a collective decision by the IOC Architecture College during a March 25 meeting...
The design for the new headquarters will be revealed at a later date arranged by the IOC.
— bustler.net
The winning concept for the IOC Headquarters will be located on a 24,000 square meter site on the banks of Lake Geneva providing an ‘Olympic campus’ of administrative buildings for 500 employees. 3xn has worked continuously on their proposal since last July when they were shortlisted with... View full entry
Rio de Janeiro is set to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and there are two starkly different visions of what that will mean for the "marvelous city," as it is known[...]
"Instead of creating a space of conviviality, a space of shared culture, of community, of conversation, you are going to have this very isolated element where after 5 o'clock in the afternoon, it's going to be dead. You are creating banks, parking lots, Trump towers," Gaffney said. "It's been rezoned for 50-story buildings."
— npr.org
Previously on Archinect:Once Unsafe, Rio's Shantytowns See Rapid GentrificationOlympic Displacement: Atlanta 1996 to Rio 2016Before Olympics It's Demolition Derby View full entry
Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s vision of new sporting venues across the boroughs fizzled, and New York lost its bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. But what if the city had tried to get the Winter Olympics instead? It would probably take more hubris than even this city can muster, but the exercise provides some telling measures of scale. — nytimes.com
London-designer Asif Khan's pavilion for the Sochi 2014 Olympics is essentially a building-sized pin screen, capable of transforming its facade into 3D projections of visitors' faces. Khan designed the pavilion for MegaFon, the general partner of the Sochi Winter Olympics and one of Russia's... View full entry
Six months after the Japanese government approved Hadid’s proposals, the country’s parliament has signalled a reverse in its support.
Hakubun Shimomura, the minister in charge of education, sports and science, said that the New National Stadium would cost 300 billion yen (£1.8 billion) to build and that was “too massive a budget”.
The design of the 80,000-seat stadium will be preserved but Mr Shimomura said: “We need to rethink this and scale it down.”
— standard.co.uk
Architecture is stuck between past and future -- years of anticipatory planning designs a structure that, once constructed, is stuck referring to all that came before. A building can't actually predict the future, although it seems like the best ones always run the risk of trying. Jonathan... View full entry
Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki has gathered a throng of designers including Toyo Ito, Sou Fujimoto, Kengo Kuma and Riken Yamamoto to oppose the design of Zaha Hadid's 2020 Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.
Maki, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1993, has organised a symposium where Japanese architects will protest against the scale of the proposed 80,000-seat stadium, which is set to become the main sporting venue for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games.
— Dezeen
[It] is the same technology as we use in Holland. It’s made up of concrete caisson, boxes, a shoebox of concrete. We fill them with styrofoam. So with [these] you get unthinkable floating foundations [...]
The house itself is the same as a normal house, the same material. Then you want to figure out how to get water and electricity and remove sewage and use the same technology as cruise ships."
- Koen Olthuis
— The Atlantic Cities
Dutch architect Koen Olthuis sees the future of architecture floating out to sea -- quite literally. Responding to undeniable ecological shifts of rising sea levels and seasonal flooding, Olthuis has proposed floatable-projects all along the social spectrum, designing prefabricated multi-use... View full entry
Atlanta and Rio are but two chapters in the long history of displacement that has accompanied mega-events like the Olympics. Similar dynamics reshaped London’s Clays Lane Estate, Beijing’s hutongs, the Marousi Roma settlement in Athens, Barcelona’s Poblenou and Seoul’s hanoks. . . . Today the people of Vila Autódromo are struggling for what housing scholar-activist Chester Hartman has aptly called “the right to stay put.” — Places Journal
As plans unfold for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, MIT's Lawrence Vale and Annemarie Gray consider the case of Vila Autódromo, a former fishing colony on the Olympic site whose residents have organized to resist displacement. They compare ongoing events in Rio to the... View full entry
"But now the Olympics is hell for me and for everyone who lives along this street. It is hell and we feel very bitter towards the government. Even if it is prestigious for the country to host the Games it is a calamity, a real calamity." — BBC News
Daniel Sandford explores the disruptions, the preparations for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics are causing for citizens. People have been relocated to make way for the Olympic Park and other facilities, however they complain that they haven't been fully compensated. Plus, it is already become the... View full entry
Japan’s Sport Council on Thursday awarded a contract to design and construct a centerpiece, billion-dollar national stadium that forms a key part of Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games to lauded U.K. firm Zaha Hadid Architects. — blogs.wsj.com
Previously: New National Stadium Japan Competition Unveils 11 Finalists View full entry
Eleven finalists have been announced today in the international design competition for the New National Stadium Japan, including design heavy hitters like Zaha Hadid Architects, SANAA, UNStudio, and Toyo Ito. The finalists, announced by the Japan Sport Council (JSC) and jury chair Tadao Ando, were selected from 46 entries to proceed to the second and final competition round. The final winner will be selected on November 7 and officially announced later that month. — bustler.net
Sydney spent three times its original $2 billion Games budget—its Olympics facilities still operate at a loss. Most of Athens’ stadia remain empty, some in graffiti-covered disrepair. — thedailybeast.com
Give Coca-Cola points for architectural originality. It has built what looks like a series of red and white plastic blocks that have just been hit with buckshot and are exploding into shards. What is this thing? It is the Coca-Cola Beat Box, a “building that you can play,” as the company’s many young docents will exuberantly explain. — NYT
David Segal took readers on a tour of the corporate sponsorship pavilions at London's Olympic Park. Mr. Segal found corporate self-promotion run amok. Along with a range of architectural follies. View full entry