The Organising Committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games revealed the design of the Games emblem today.

The unveiling coincided with the five year countdown until the Games, and comes just days after Zaha Hadid’s ambitious design for the national stadium was rejected. 

Based on the letter ‘T’, said to be inspired by the words ‘Tokyo’, ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘Team’, the emblem was designed by award-winning Japanese designer Kenjiro Sano.

British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid’s futurist national stadium design, which formed part of the bid for the Games and which was due for completion ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, was finally rejected last week amid growing concerns over the cost of building the stadium. 

"If the decision was made to save money, it should go right in line with the IOC's Agenda 2020," Tokyo 2020 President Mori said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Mori today called for stakeholders to unite under the new emblem. 

“The Tokyo 2020 Games emblem is a wonderful work of art that represents the aspirations and the ultimate goal that athletes around the world aim to achieve – taking part in the Olympic Games,” he said.

“The emblem is also a symbol behind which the whole of Japan can unite as a single integrated body and join the collective endeavours of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the national government, the Japanese Olympic Committee, the Japanese business community, as well as the Games volunteers and everyone who is assisting with the preparations for the 2020 Games. 

“Let us all unite our efforts under the new Games emblems and work together as one to ensure the realisation of a truly inspirational Olympic Games in 2020.”

IOC Vice President Coates, who is leading the IOC Coordination Commission that monitors Games progress, said “I congratulate the Tokyo 2020 team on their work and believe that this emblem will have an important influence on the future of Olympic design.”

At the recent Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, the opening and closing ceremonies dazzled audiences around the world. Spectacular, theatrical and hugely sophisticated, they exemplified the fact that, although a competition may have several venues, the main stadium remains the focal point of every major event. But how can a stadium meet the huge technical demands of these events, and their capacity criteria, while still being able to adapt for a long-term legacy once the main event has finished?

The solution lies in the integration of the permanent and temporary. It’s only by including temporary structures and seating in the initial design that buildings gain the flexibility they need to adapt to a changing set of needs. In Sochi, for example, we incorporated temporary seating that will allow the Olympic Stadium to expand to accommodate the 45,000 seats required for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, before reducing to a final legacy capacity of 25,000 for the local football team.

Similarly, the Incheon Stadium, which will host the 2014 Asian Games, is a 70,000 seat stadium that will reduce to 30,000 seats, thanks to our design that has one permanent seating stand and three temporary ones, destined to become park landscaping for the city’s residents and visitors to enjoy once the temporary structures are removed.

This flexible approach has its roots in Populous’ design for Sydney’s Olympic Stadium, now the ANZ stadium, where an initial capacity of 110,000 seats was reduced to 83,000 after the Games by removing the end stands and reconfiguring the roof. By the London Olympics in 2012, our thinking had evolved to focus on design as a whole, rather than construction. We broke the Stadium down into its constituent parts to explore how a building could be planned from the outset to transform itself and be fit for a long-term legacy – and the result is a multi-purpose Stadium of 60,000 seats (reduced from an Olympic capacity of 80,000) that is capable of hosting IRB World Cup Rugby and Premier League football as well as concerts and other events.

Designing in this way has inherent challenges: namely, ensuring that at each stage of its evolution the building has architectural merit – during the event itself, when the focus of the world’s media is on the stadium; and afterwards, when visitors and residents must appreciate and use it as part of the city’s fabric. In addition, although the end goal of the design is the same – to reduce in scale after the main event – this can’t be achieved by a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Each stadium has unique requirements and these must be reflected in innovative design solutions.

At Populous, our understanding of a stadium’s cultural significance means that we’re constantly devising innovative ways to balance the cultural and technical needs of the main event with the social responsibility of designing buildings that have a long-term legacy. It’s a journey that, for us, began in Sydney in 2000 and will, we are sure, continue to challenge and fascinate far into this century and beyond.

This article was written by Populous principals Ben Vickery and Tom Jones

(Source: HOK) A new cultural landmark is in the works for Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. Yas Arena will be the first multipurpose built arena in the city designed to accommodate a wide variety of sport and entertainment events. The facility’s dynamic form and illuminated lantern facade is intended to both complement and animate the expanding waterfront promenade at Yas Bay.HOK, a leader in International sport and entertainment design, is part of the WSP-led team responsible for delivering the design of Yas Arena, with support from Pascall+Watson. The team was engaged by Miral Asset Management, the entity responsible for the development of the broad southern part of Yas Island.  In addition to the architectural design of Yas Arena, HOK also designed the adjacent arena retail and dining destination along the boardwalk, forming a mixed-use anchor on the east end of Yas Bay.

“Our goal is to create an exceptional entertainment experience for fans and spectators,” said John Rhodes, a director of HOK’s Sports + Recreation + Entertainment practice. “Yas Arena will be the centrepiece of the development and serve as a destination on Yas Island.”

HOK designed Yas Arena to create an intimate, highly flexible and efficient venue with excellent acoustics that can be used year-round for a variety of sport and entertainment events.

“Our team knew the building needed to be smart, adaptable and technologically-advanced in order to efficiently transform for the wide variety of events the client wished to host,” added Rhodes. “This transformability will make Yas Arena one of the most sophisticated arenas in the world.”

The arena is designed to expand from an intimate 500-seat theatre to an 18,000-capacity venue, maximizing revenue and supporting a wide variety of events. This focus on flexibility carries over to premium and back-of-house spaces. The arena is designed to adapt to create the ideal user experience for a diverse set of events, including community gatherings, concerts, performances, sporting events, and meetings and conventions.

Premium spaces include a VIP lounge that can be transformed into a grand ballroom for events, hospitality boxes and unique terrace bars for receptions and parties.

Additional amenities, including food and beverage, will be located adjacent to the arena to create a linear street that stretches down the waterfront promenade. This outdoor concourse will create a festival-like atmosphere to generate year-round activity. The outdoor concourse will provide connectivity to the surrounding district on Yas Bay.

“The development of the UAE’s first 18,000 capacity-arena will place Yas Island among the leaders for performance and events venues.” said Jonathan Brown, development director of Miral Asset Management. “We’re proud to set a new benchmark in the industry as we provide visitors with even bigger and better events to enjoy—all of which will perfectly showcase Yas Island’s excellence and vivacity.”

Yas Island is a new multipurpose leisure, shopping and entertainment destination that includes a hotel cluster, the Yas Marina F1 circuit and a growing number of theme parks. Yas Arena will be located directly on the waterfront and serve as an anchor for the promenade that will feature more than 50 cafes and restaurants, 20 retail outlets, a recreational pier, two hotels and a beach club.

Tottenham Hotspur's new stadium partnership with the NFL has been described as a "visionary moment" by a director of the club.

With 61,559 seats, Spurs' new home will be largest capacity football club stadium in London and will feature a single-tier South Stand able to accommodate 17,500 spectators.

Expected to be complete for the beginning of the 2018-19 season, the multi-use stadium will include a fully retractable football pitch that can be replaced by a synthetic grass surface to be used for NFL games and other events.

The NFL signed a 10-year deal with the English Premier League club to use the stadium as its dedicated home for American football games in the UK.

Tottenham executive director Donna-Maria Cullen believes the NFL deal has improved standards in the design and technological aspects of the new facility.

Speaking at the Telegraph Business of Sport conference in London, Cullen said of the NFL partnership: "It was a visionary moment by Daniel [Levy, Tottenham chairman].

"One of the reasons we looked at the NFL was to create something different in Tottenham. You have to deliver more than a Premier League football club.

"The NFL will be a very different sport. But it has driven up standards in stadium. It's a whole new audience."

Construction of the new stadium means Tottenham will play their home games next season at Wembley.

HOST CITY: How does the design of Al Wakrah stadium fulfil obligations to FIFA?

Al Khater: Throughout the design process, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee has been working with AECOM and Zaha Hadid Architects to ensure all of FIFA’s stadium requirements, from bowl design to seating capacity, are fulfilled.

Al Wakrah Stadium’s concept design was developed to exceed FIFA’s requirements while remaining consistent with Qatar’s existing and future sports infrastructure needs.

HOST CITY: What will happen to the elements of the modular design that are to be removed after the World Cup?

Al Khater: Many of our stadia will include demountable grandstands. Those stadia will be downsized after the 2022 FIFA World Cup to ensure that Qatar is left with venues that are fit for purpose. Approximately 170,000 seats will be donated to countries in need of sporting infrastructure, which will be determined in conjunction with FIFA and the continental football confederations.

HOST CITY: How does the design of Al Wakrah enable it to act as a community hub?

Al Khater: Our plans are fully inclusive. We have listened to the community’s needs and taken into consideration their desires in the stadium and precinct plans and will continue to do so throughout stadium construction. As a reflection of these needs, the Al Wakrah Stadium Precinct will include:

• Two FIFA-compliant training pitches fully cooled to an optimal 26 degrees Celsius.
• A multi-purpose indoor arena incorporating two indoor halls and four tennis courts Two basketball courts and associated support facilities.
• A four-star business hotel with 150 rooms to support Al Wakr h as a fledging business hub.
• 5,000-10,000 sq m retail space available to Qatari entrepreneurs to incubate SMEs.
• A hospitality vocational training centre to train-up the local and regional youth, who will welcome the world to Qatar in 2022 and form the fabric of a Middle Eastern event management industry.
• An international school for 1,000 pupils incorporating a 400m running track 

HOST CITY: The 2022 FIFA World Cup is currently scheduled to take place in the summer. How will the stadium create a comfortable experience for players and fans?

Al Khater: The Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee and teams of international climate control experts have developed environmentally-friendly outdoor cooling technologies and strategies to be deployed at stadiums, training sites, fan zones and other areas where fans, team delegations, match officials, media representatives and the FIFA family will congregate.