Just days after appearing to receive final government approval, Zaha Hadid’s plans for Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium have been dropped – but the architect says the project’s spiralling costs are not down to its design.
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said the project would now “start over from zero” with the decision taken after “listening to the voices of the people and the athletes”.
The estimated cost for the stadium had risen to $2bn (€1.8bn, £1.3bn) – almost double the original figure – when the Japanese government recently
gave approval for the plans, but this sparked a public backlash and political battles over who would foot the bill.
The government appeared to place the blame on the stadium’s design as the main cause of the cost overruns. However, Zaha Hadid Architects said in a statement it was “not the case that the recently reported cost increases are due to the design, which uses standard materials and techniques well within the capability of Japanese contractors and meets the budget set by the Japan Sports Council”.
Instead, it said the “real challenge” had been “agreeing an acceptable construction cost against the backdrop of steep annual increases in construction costs in Tokyo and a fixed deadline”.
Abe took the decision to drop Zaha Hadid’s designs after a meeting with the chair of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, Yoshiro Mori.
The actual appearance of the stadium has also been heavily criticised in the country, with a number of Japanese architects, including Toyo Ito and Fumihiko Maki, outspoken in their desire to see Zaha Hadid’s proposals scrapped.
“It is absolutely right that the benefits and costs of the new national stadium should be clearly and accurately communicated and understood by the public and decision-makers in Japan and we hope that this is one of the objectives of the review announced by the prime minister,” added Zaha Hadid Architects.
The stadium, which will form the centrepiece of the 2020 Olympics, won’t now be completed in time for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, as originally planned.
The prime minister has instructed his sports and Olympics ministers to start the process to select a new stadium design immediately – with a cheaper price tag top of the agenda. Sports minister Hakubun Shimomura said a new design would be chosen within six months.
