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The Japan Sport Council (JSC) has unveiled two new designs for the stadium that will be used in the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. JSC refers to the designs as ‘A’ and ‘B’.
Japanese architects Kengo Kuma (Scheme A) and Toyo Ito (Scheme B) have designed the rival proposals for the Olympic stadium, replacing London-based Zaha Hadid Architect's (ZHA) competition-winning design.
The two schemes were submitted anonymously to a new competition for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games stadium.
Although ZHA originally won the stadium commission through an international competition in 2012, JSC cancelled the firm's plans for an 80,000 stadium in July, due to rising construction costs and environmental concerns expressed by the public, and started a new search for an architect. The London architect had been working on the plans for the stadium for over two years.
Kuma has partnered with Taisei Construction on scheme A, while Ito is working with construction companies Takanaka, Obayashi and Shimizu on scheme B.
Design A is a ring-shaped stadium with a latticed wooden roof, and an oblong well above the race trace and pitch. Rows of slender columns support the viewing terraces, which feature banks of planting. The scheme is estimated to cost ¥153bn (£832.2m).
Design B also features an oval plan and has an atrium surrounded by a wavering glass shelter. The design is estimated to cost ¥153.7bn (£836m).
Ito and Kuma were among a host of high-profile architects and designers that objected to Hadid's design in 2013. They claimed the stadium was "too big" for the city's Yoyogi neighbourhood and that the architect's design "could be better".
Nick Myall
News Editor
