Japan has won the bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and Zaha Hadid has been picked to retrofit its National Stadium. First designed for the 1964 Summer Games, this new stadium boasts a few green credentials.
Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid has never shown a great deal of interest in designing healthy green buildings, but she has incorporated a few meaningful eco features in her design for what will become the Tokyo National Olympic Stadium.
In addition to using geothermal energy, the new building will be cooled using recycled rainwater. Additionally, the stadium’s grey water will be reused – either for plumbing or landscaping. As yet, there has been little mention of what kind of materials will be used for construction or where they will be sourced, but at least Zaha is making some kind of effort to soften her enormous ecological footprint.
The Sports Council is enamored with Hadid’s design – despite complaints that her Aquatic Center built for the London Games was so large that the spectators may as well have watched swimming events at home, so invisible were the athletes from the seats.
Equipped with a sliding roof, the Tokyo National Olympic Stadium has a flexible design that will ensure that the building will not be obsolete when the international sporting event comes to a close. Indeed, this is part of the reason the judges chose her brief above ten other competitors.
They noted, according to Atlantic Cities, its “innovative and fluid design that expresses a sense of dynamism appropriate for sporting activities.”
In addition to serving the Olympic Games, the stadium should be ready in time for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Zaha Hadid’s studio has been cleaning up with design competitions of late – even adding a touch of star power to the controversial 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
