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

A little while ago, we reported about Zaha Hadid Architects taking the first prize in the New National Stadium Japan competition and the selection of the 11 finalist projects. Here is now another design proposal for Tokyo's proposed Olympic Stadium which didn't quite make it among the final submissions: "The Twist" by French MenoMenoPiu Architects & FHF Architectes. — bustler.net

The design proposal by Populous and Ateliers 2/3/4/ for the new Grand Stade Rugby Stadium in Paris has emerged victoriously over two competing entries. The announcement was made by the Steering Committee of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) after several months of discussions and reviews. — bustler.net

"The Falcons and the Authority have reviewed the Statements of Qualifications received in response to the RFQ, and the Authority has selected the following firms to be finalists and eligible for further consideration (listed alphabetically):" — Georgia Procurement Registry

The initial responses of some local architects to the arena drawings were underwhelming.

While cautioning that the renderings are preliminary, Seattle architect and critic Mark Hinshaw said some of the views of the proposed arena seem like "boxes with a tight lid" that could be any number of public buildings.

"One thing that seems missing is any kind of dramatic roof expression that we have seen with a number of landmark buildings — particularly ones that involve large audiences. — seattletimes.com

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

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

We tend to think of architecture as solid, stable, enduring, something that at its best will outlast us and possibly say something about us to future generations. Demolition makes powerfully evident the vulnerability, the mortality, of all things standing. — Places Journal

Major League Soccer has asked SHoP Architects, the firm that designed the new Nets stadium in downtown Brooklyn, to prepare initial designs for a Major League Soccer stadium in Queens.

SHoP's name is on a July Major League Soccer proposal given to city officials, and obtained by Capital. Last night, MLS confirmed that SHoP is indeed working on the initial schematic designs for a stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. — capitalnewyork.com

A nearly two-month search for the firm that will design the new $975 million Vikings stadium ended Friday morning when the team and the public board overseeing construction of the project selected HKS Inc. of Dallas, which recently designed new NFL stadiums for the Dallas Cowboys and Indianapolis Colts. — startribune.com

Brooklynites might consider themselves lucky. In Manhattan, Madison Square Garden’s owners are renovating, spending nearly $1 billion. Judging from results so far, it won’t be enough. The Barclays Center is no Garden disaster, just an extraordinarily expensive lost opportunity. — bloomberg.com

Ai Weiwei has never set foot inside the [Bird's Nest].

He told NPR that the stadium has become entirely divorced from ordinary people.

"We love this building, but we don't like the content they have put in, the kind of propaganda. They dissociated this building [from] citizens' celebration or happiness, [it's] not integrated with the city's life," Ai said. "So I told them I will never go to this building." — npr.org

Global architecture firms, LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) and Designsport, collaborated with local Ethiopian firm JDAW to win the international architecture competition for a national stadium and sports village in Ethiopia's capitol, Addis Ababa. The competition, held by the Federal Sport Commission, Ethiopia, called for a new FIFA and Olympic-standard 60,000 seat stadium to host major soccer and athletic events. — bustler.net

The 'Stadium of Tomorrow' design competition, sponsored by global stadium architecture specialist Populous to mark the completion of the design of its first major sports stadium in Korea, attracted more than 250 teams from all over Korea. [...] The stadium had to be transformable/moveable/demountable. — bustler.net

The Mayor of Montreal, Gérald Tremblay, recently unveiled the winning project in the architecture competition for the new indoor soccer center at the Saint-Michel Environmental Complex (SMEC). The jury has chosen the concept developed by Saucier + Perrotte / Hughes Condon Marler Architects from among the four submitted by the finalist firms. — bustler.net