Zaha Hadid is one talented architect which is why it wasn’t surprising that Japan had originally chosen her to design their 2020 Olympic stadium. While the design itself is pretty out there, the design was also met with a lot of controversy namely due to how much it would cost, the cost of which had ballooned to $2.02 billion.This was up from the original proposal which was set at $1.31 billion, which admittedly is still a lot of money. This is why it also doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that Japan has unveiled the new design of the Olympic stadium, a design which not only costs less, but will also be more in line with Japanese culture.
The new stadium, as you can see above, will resemble traditional Japanese temples. It will be shorter at 50 meters with the main sports field actually being sunken under the ground. The total cost is expected to be $1.26 billion which is cheaper than what Hadid had previously been working on.
Unsurprisingly Hadid’s architecture firm wasn’t too thrilled about losing out on the contract. According to a statement from the company, “This shocking treatment of an international design and engineering team, as well as the respected Japanese design companies with whom we worked, was not about design or budget. In fact much of our two years of detailed design work and the cost savings we recommended have been validated by the remarkable similarities of our original detailed stadium layout and our seating bowl configuration with those of the design announced today.”
The new stadium is expected to be completed in time for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympics.
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