Japan Gives Green Light For Zaha Hadid's $2B Olympic Stadium

The Japanese government confirmed that Zaha Hadid Architects' Tokyo Olympic stadium will "start on site in October" and cost £1.3B ($2.1B) to complete, according to Merlin Fulcher of ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. The announcement by Japanese Sports Minister Hakubun Shimomura "ends speculation on whether the competition-winning scheme could be further redesigned." According to the minister, the high-profile 2020 Tokyo Olympic stadium will cost £1.3B to build, which is almost twice the original £674M estimate. The "iconic" structure will start on site in October and be completed in May '19 two months later than originally planned but still in time for the Rugby World Cup. The 80,000-capacity stadium project has been "repeatedly in the headlines ever since Hadid defeated a raft of international stars to win the job two years ago" (ARCHITECTS JOURNAL, 7/3).