CLOSE AD ×

Zaha Hadid Triumphs in New National Stadium Japan Competition

Zaha Hadid Triumphs in New National Stadium Japan Competition

Zaha Hadid wins again! Following a star-studded design competition, the Japanese Sports Council has announced Hadid as the winner of the New National Stadium in Japan, beating out Toyo Ito, SANAA, Populous, UN Studio among others and taking home a $250,000 prize. All-star designer of London’s 2012 Aquatics Center for the summer Olympics and the first female to ever win the Pritzker Architecture prize, Hadid continues her legacy with this new stadium in Tokyo. Estimated to cost around $1.6 billion, the venue will seat 80,000 visitors and sport a retractable roof.

Japanese architect and jury chair, Tadao Andao, commented on Hadid’s fluid design as a complement to the crowded Tokyo landscape as well as being environmentally efficient and able to fit the strict completion deadline. “It has dynamism, which is most essential to sport and its streamlined shape fits its internal space. It is also new in terms of structural technology,” Ando told the AFP.

The stadium’s smooth and sinuous white curves fall in line with Hadid’s futuristic style and should play a unique addition to the city’s terrain. The new structure replaces the existing 54,000-seat national stadium that featured prominently in Japan’s 1964 Olympics. The new stadium will have a similar capacity as Beijing’s Olympic “Bird’s Nest” stadium—91,000 seats—and will feature an all-weather roof.

Construction is set to begin in 2015 with a completion scheduled in 2018. Hadid’s new stadium design will play host to the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and may even hold the 2020 Summer Olympics should Tokyo be granted its request to host them.


CLOSE AD ×