British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid said that the Japan Sport Council is "withholding money owed for work on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic stadium design while demanding her company give up claims to copyrights," according to the AP. The Japan Sport Council said in a statement on Thursday that "it was seeking to resolve the issue but would not comment on specifics of the contract with London-based Zaha Hadid Architects." Hadid contends the sports body is "demanding a transfer of the copyright for the design work in exchange for an overdue final payment." After her original design was rejected as "too costly," Hadid complained that the new design chosen by the Sport Council, by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, "draws heavily from her earlier work." Hadid’s company said that it "has been trying since October to obtain the payment by the Sport Council." The amount of the payment "was not given." The company said in a statement, "We can confirm that we received and rejected a written request from the Japan Sport Council to modify our existing contract to allow the transfer of the copyright of the detailed design for Japan National Stadium, owned by ZHA, in exchange for an overdue final payment" (AP, 1/14). ARCHITECTS JOURNAL's Laura Mark reported it is understood the proposed changes to the contract also included a "gagging clause" preventing anyone employed by the practice from commenting on the replacement stadium designs (ARCHITECTS JOURNAL, 1/14). DEZEEN MAGAZINE's Amy Frearson reported Hadid's firm had been working on the stadium for over two years before "being booted off the job last July in a row over spiralling costs." It claims to have been "chasing overdue fees" since October for "months of work carried out by a team of more than 100 architects and engineers in Japan and the U.K. working for ZHA and many other companies." The revised agreement specifies that the stadium's new design team is "allowed to use any product of work ... regardless of its copyright." It also states that the JSC may "use project work freely, without additional payment or restriction (includes alteration and any other use) and mutually agrees that [ZHA] will consent without objection." The JSC is "refusing to provide payment until the revised agreement is signed" (DEZEEN MAGAZINE, 1/14).
