According to Reuters, the massive ballooning in the construction costs of Zaha Hadid's relatively unpopular proposed design for Japan's National Stadium are not the fault of the chairman of the design committee, Tadao Ando: "Soaring construction and labor costs, along with a rise in Japan's sales tax, are blamed for much of the price surge." Ando also noted that “We shouldn’t drop Ms. Hadid’s design, otherwise we’ll lose credibility internationally.” The enormous increase in the cost of the stadium is awkward, as the country is still not fully recovered from the devastation of the March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
World-famous architect Tadao Ando was astonished to learn that the design he chose for the new National Stadium would cost ¥252 billion to build, he said at a press conference Thursday, where he spoke for the first time since the swelling cost became an issue.
Ando said he is responsible for picking the design, but not the cost. “I thought, ‘What?’ when I heard it would cost ¥252 billion,” Ando said.
The press conference was held at around 11 a.m. at a Tokyo hotel, where the architect appeared in front of about 250 journalists with a smile.
At the beginning, Ando complained about the criticism aimed at him. “It’s not really fair to say, ‘It’s all Ando’s fault’ just because I didn’t attend meetings of the council of representatives from various fields. There are dozens of experts” on the committee, he said.
Ando then displayed a panel board that showed the process of selecting the design of the stadium, saying: “We were assigned to pick the design. That’s it.”
He added, “You may think it’s safe to shift responsibility to me,” but said he could not be held responsible for the swelling costs.
No answer to inquiry
Ando said the enormous construction cost of ¥252 billion was beyond his expectations. “I’d like to ask if there’s any way to cut it down, but I hear nothing” from the authorities, he said.
The Japan Sport Council held a design competition for the stadium, setting the condition that the total construction cost should be ¥130 billion.
“I also felt ¥130 billion was not adequate, but I’d never designed anything big like this before,” Ando said. “Thorough discussions about the construction costs were not held. There’s no exact drawing sheet [for the design] either.”
Zaha Hadid’s arching design was chosen in an international design competition chaired by Ando in November 2012.