Architects

Toyo Ito leads petition to scrap Zaha Hadid's 2020 Olympic Stadium project

May 16, 2014

In a petition with 14,279 supporters as of this morning, a group of Japanese architects led by Pritzker Prize winners Toyo Ito and Fumihiko Maki is calling on the Japan Sports Council to scrap Zaha Hadid's Tokyo Olympic Stadium.

They favor of an alternative plan that would involve renovating the existing Meiji Jingo Gaien Stadium.

Among their chief concerns of Hadid's stadium plan are the negative impacts the massive, 80,000-seat, 290,000-sm stadium would have on the surrounding Jingu Outer Gardens and other green spaces; the the cost and scale of the project; and the financial burden they say it places on the country's younger generations.  

According to Design Boom, Hadid’s stadium would reach a total height of 70 meters, the equivalent of a 20 story building, and would overpower its surroundings. 

Here's a look at Hadid's design for the stadium:

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