design by Toyo Ito

all images courtesy of Japan Sport Council / JSC

Kengo Kuma has been selected as the winner of Japan National Stadium Competition, beating Toyo Ito and Zaha Hadid. Japanese government has finally made a decision for this controversial competition and found Kuma's proposal ''a less-costly'' and ''greenery-rich plan''. Kuma's new National Stadium will be serve as the centerpiece of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Last week, Japan Sport Council (JSC) has revealed two new schemes about Tokyo's new stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Although it is not officially confirmed by international architects, those proposals were submitted by Japanese architects Kengo Kuma and Toyo Ito  because of their stylistic design approaches, which were labelled by A and B.

Kengo Kuma's proposal, formerly known as design A, was submitted by a joint venture comprised of an architect, construction firm Taisei Corporation and construction support firm Azusa Sekkei Corporation. Kengo Kuma's ''winning-design features a roof made of wood and steel for a design that draws on traditional Japanese architecture'' mentioned in Japanese Times.

detail view of wooden pillars

“To be honest, I feel a bit relieved now,” Olympic minister Toshiaki Endo told reporters after the Cabinet met Tuesday to finalize the selection. “At the same time, I expect the winning companies to build a new National Stadium that can win trust from the world and people in Japan by taking full advantage of Japanese technologies and finishing the construction on time.” 

The Japan Sport Council (JSC) will finalize the contract with the winning party next month and plans to start construction as early as December 2016. All construction is scheduled to finish by November 2019 so that the stadium will be ready for the Olympics opening ceremony in July 2020.

inside of stadium shows undulating form with roof

The budget of the overall project, including construction, design and other work, is estimated at ¥153 billion, as compared to Hadid's design, of which the central government will pay half. The rest will come from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and revenue from the sports promotion lottery organized by the JSC, according to Japanese Times. Hadid's project proposal costs were estimated at up to ¥252 billion — almost double the ¥130 billion estimate when the plan was adopted by the JSC in the wake of an international design competition held in 2012.

Architect and critic Takashi Moriyama said that ''the simplistic design of the winning proposal, which will have trees and shrubbery both inside the building and around it, is a good match in a landscape that for decades has been known for the several sporting facilities that crowd the area, unlike Hadid’s futuristic design that some thought would clash with existing structures.''

“We feel buildings constructed with cold metallic plates and with a concrete surface to be less luxurious, no matter what the construction cost,” Moriyama said, adding that the new stadium should be embraced more warmly by Tokyo residents.

Please see our previous media coverage here.

> via Japan Sport Council