Zaha Hadid Architects' Changes To Tokyo Stadium Design Not Enough For Protesters

Objectors to Zaha Hadid Architects' plans for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium are "still unhappy with the practice's proposals, despite a number of changes to the designs," according to Laura Mark of ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. Tokyo-based Edward Suzuki Associates Founder Edward Suzuki said that the "amended scheme remained 'too big and too expensive.'" Suzuki’s petition against the project has "garnered almost 2,500 supporters." It is effectively an "English translation of a previous anti-ZHA stadium petition by Japanese heavyweights and Pritzker Prize-winners Fumihiko Maki and Toyo Ito." Combined, the two petitions which call for the "huge new stadium to be scrapped and an existing arena on the site to be re-used," have amassed more than 31,600 signatories. Initial protests resulted in Hadid "going back to the drawing board." But protesters have said that the scheme, which has "been shrunk by a fifth, is still too large and that the revised costs 'do not make sense'" (ARCHITECTS JOURNAL, 7/15).