Kengo Kuma’s Timber National Stadium Completed in Tokyo
Built with larch and cedar from all 47 prefectures, the 68,000-seat stadium in Meiji Jingu Gaien replaces the 1964 Olympic arena on the same site.
Tokyo held a ceremony on 15 December 2019 to mark the completion of the new National Stadium, attended by Governor Yuriko Koike and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Designed by Kengo Kuma with Azusa Sekkei and built by Taisei Corporation in almost exactly three years, the 68,000-seat venue was the main stage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The stadium stands on the site of the arena built for the 1964 Olympics in the Meiji Jingu Gaien district, near the forest of Meiji Shrine, and is nearly twice its size. It replaced Zaha Hadid’s earlier winning scheme, which was dropped as too costly and unable to meet the 2020 timeline. The Architect’s Newspaper put the construction bill at US$1.4 billion.
Kuma’s answer is a low, layered building of timber and steel. Larch and cedar from all 47 Japanese prefectures line its multilayered eaves, which the architects describe as a component of traditional Japanese architecture that blocks sunlight and brings a breeze to the stands. The half-covered roof and open-air columns keep the bowl ventilated, while planting cascades down the terraces in a pagoda-inspired form.
At the ceremony, Governor Koike said the city would “welcome the world with Japanese hospitality”. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government noted that construction of all the Games venues would be finished with the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in February 2020.
The stadium’s public opening was set for 21 December 2019, with the Emperor’s Cup football final on New Year’s Day as its first sporting event. It gives visitors to Tokyo a major Kuma building beside the Meiji Shrine forest.
