As I was enjoying casual Chinese cuisine in the neighborhood earlier this evening, I overheard some conversation from a table behind me.
“So it was designed by an Indian architect, right?”
Nope, you almost got it, if getting the first letter right counts as almost. The conversation was about the new national stadium plan in Tokyo for the coming Olympic games, designed by Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi architect. In a nutshell, the situation is like this: It just turned out the selected plan would cost far more than the budget, and there is simultaneous progress of finding the bad guy and coming up with an alternative idea. As of now it looks like fundamental changes are to be made to the plan, to my relief personally.
I previously knew nothing about that topic, but in past several months I started browsing some information like here (summary and explanation by an architect). This blog covers philosophies in architectural design and examination on structural factors in a comprehensible manner. From my quick knowledge based on stuff like that, I’d say no Zaha. Probably it’s due to my caring about nothing but functionality in industrial design, while there are other factors in buildings like this. Plus, Zaha is the one who starts with the opposite foot to functionality. Simply different universes we live in.
However, I believe the biggest part of the fuss should be attributed to the selection process. There probably will be a bunch of people who try to talk Zaha down in order to avoid being beaten themselves. But I presume Zaha’s plan just would not fit within the budget in the first place, which was (supposedly) presented during selection. So isn’t it just a problem about the other side that carried out selection and placed the order? The question can also be: Is it okay to be THAT irresponsible if that money you’re putting on the table is not from your pocket? These questions will probably act as key points in round 3 from here onward.
Especially the chicken and cashew nut stir fry was awesome.