Summary
In the last class, we talked about plans of a new national stadium renewed for 2020 Tokyo Olympic. At first, a plan by Zaha Hadid, renowned architect won the competition. But the estimated costs of building this new stadium was spiraling up to 252 billion yen and that plan was abolished. This incident caused a dispute and led to the resignation of the Ministers of Education and Sports. The new plan made by Kengo Kuma that won the new competition, costs 149 billion that is far cheaper than Ms. Hadid’s one. Supporters of this plan say it’s also fit better to the immediate environment and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe highly evaluated the new plan.
Opinion
I could not completely agree with the decision of cancelling the Hadid’s plan to be honest because I think Japan might lose its credit by this incident. After this, architects especially in foreign countries would hesitate to apply to other competitions held by Japanese official bodies because they might think even if he/she win, their plan could be abolished. Certainly the original Ms. Hadid’s plan costs too much and is also not acceptable to many people who pay taxes. But the treatment to Ms. Hadid’s plan by Japanese bodies including government and JOC, cancelling her plan one-sidedly seems rough and even impolite. I think the Japanese bodies should have been more careful and have to apologize to her.
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