New National Stadium, Tokyo Sporting Venue, Japan Arena Development, Japanese Architecture

New Tokyo National Stadium

Japanese Sporting Arena Building – by Andrea Maffei Architects

22 Apr 2013

Tokyo Stadium Competition Entry

Design: Andrea Maffei Architects

Location: Tokyo, Japan

New National Stadium in Tokyo

The distribution of the main arena of the New Tokyo National Stadium follows the best way to avoid big security fire stairs and to give an easy access by the people inside the new stadium. The architects designed to create a main platform at +34m a.s.l. connecting the new stadium with the gymnasium designed by Fumiko Maki in a unique big Plaza as a City of Sport. 35,006 seats goes down from +34 to +24m a.s.l. and 45,163 seats rise up from +34 to the roof. This solution makes the circulation in the stadium very easy and comfortable from the main Plaza.

picture : Urban Arts

The athletes will have their changing rooms under the platform at level +24m a.s.l. and they will access directly to the sport fields at the same level with large exit spaces in the stands. We designed also that the whole sport field at +24m level can be moved down 5m. This allows to extract other 10,608 retractable seats from beside to bring people closer to the football field and increase the number of spectators to more than 90,000.

The people will feel very close to the football players in an exciting atmosphere in which the spectator is involved directly in the football game. Behind the tribunes we provided spaces for bars, restaurants, shops and toilets. The spectators will easily find the facilities they need close to their seats. Inside the stands we provided VIP glass boxes on the long side, connected to the VIP spaces below where a limousine loading bay will get celebrities to the VIP lounge and then to the boxes above. Each box will be composed by a small living space, a small kitchen and toilet, plus reserved seats in the tribune with larger size than the common ones. We developed new exciting spaces for the spectators also outside of the arena. A large public space in front is covered by a roof that creates a new Festival Sport Plaza, repair people from rain and shadows and make the space usable for many kind of events. The covered Plaza outside will allow to make several events like concerts, oobon parties, political campaigns, small sport activities, small fairs and many others.

images from architect

The main roof of the stadium is characterized by a big circular hole 120m wide that can be closed or open by a light dome of steel and fabric sliding on the roof on binaries. When it’s open, it will seem like the Pantheon in Rome. The size of the hole correspond to the football field below and allows to get natural light enough for the grass. During the Olympic games the Olympic torch will be suspended in the center of the hole by tension cables and it will be floating on the head of the spectators. The atmosphere will be unique in the history of all the Olympic games and it will be very new and exciting for the spectators. When the roof is closed it will get a half transparent roof by fabric in the center.

The people will access to the stadium using public transportation from JR Sendagaya station and Kokuritsukyogijo Station of Oedo line. They will rise up to the main platform near Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium at +34m a.s.l. and continue in their circulation at the same level until the new Stadium. A big roof will cover the people from the rain and the shadows and will allow a controlled access to the arena in many different points. 43% of the spectators will go down to get a seat and 57% will go up in the tribunes above. This simple way of approaching to the tribune without any big fire stairs and covered by the big roof, makes the use of the stadium easy and comfortable. In the same way the people will go easily out, finding a big plaza to reach the train stations.

image from architect

From the plaza the people will take the 2 big ramps/slopes that rise slowly to the roof and make it accessible and usable by the public. The facades of the main arena are covered by wood to give a friendly impression to the people. Walking to the roof, the public will admire little by little the landscape of Tokyo in an exciting way. On the roof they will attend to different kind of events under the movable fabric dome: volleyball, basketball, judo, karate, kendo, concerts, theatre shows and many others. For the first time in the history of architecture the roof of a stadium will be used by the people to practice sport and watch many different events. The roof includes also a training flied for the athletes – 750m and 100m. The athletes will make training on the roof, visible by the public, and then will go down in the arena to play the game. It will be a completely new way of living and using an Olympic stadium. Eight groups of stairs and lifts will allow a fast access to the roof and will provide the escape of the people in case of fire. They will represent the structure columns necessary to support the four beams of the main roof.

From the plaza the people will find a stair to go down to visit the museum. This will be accessible directly from level +24m a.s.l.. and will be composed by large flexible open spaces. Staff, athlets, journalists, judges will access directly by car under the main platform to level +24m a.s.l. in 2 floors where they will find changing rooms, gyms, media center for press conferences, TV, radio activities.

The VIP will access on the other side of the arena with a limousine bay, an access to the lounge to go up to the VIP boxes in the main tribune. The public coming to the stadium by car will access to a big parking space for about 1500 cars at level +24m a.s.l. directly from Road n.418. After parking they will go the Festival Sport Plaza by lifts and stairs located in between the tribune, covered by rain.

New National Stadium Tokyo – Building Information

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Program: Olympic Stadium – 2020 Olympic Games
Client: Japan Sports Council
Competition: july – september 2012
Architecture: Andrea Maffei
Project: Andrea Maffei Architects, Yoshino Hiroshi Architect Office, Studio Tecnico Majowiecki, Kankyo-Engineering Co., Ltd.
Design: schematic design
Design Team: Andrea Maffei, Takeshi Miura, Alessandra De Stefani, Takatoshi Oki, Roberto Balduzzi, Paolo Evolvi, Elisabetta Borgiotti, Stefano Bergagna, Pietro Bertozzi, Chiara Zandri / Andrea Maffei Architects
Associate Architect: Hiroshi Yoshino, Mitsuyoshi Miyazaki / Yoshino Hiroshi Architect Office
Structure Project: prof. Massimo Majowiecki / Studio Tecnico Majowiecki
Plants Project: Kankyo-Engineering Co., Ltd.
Dimension: total floor space – 301.219 mq
Capacity: 90.000 seats
Cost Estimation: US$ 1,300,000,000

New National Stadium Tokyo images / information from Andrea Maffei Architects

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image © Marcus Bredt, Berlin
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