The Tokyo Olympic Stadium saga continues. Japanese Starchitect Kengo Kuma has had to deny calls of plagiarism after critics have claimed that his Tokyo Stadium design bears a remarkable resemblance to it’s previous iteration, a scrapped design by the British-Iraqi architect, Zaha Hadid.

Kuma’s denial is unfounded. It is quite plain to see that the current design is almost a carbon copy of Hadid’s. Firstly, it is hard to ignore the huge rectangular garden that forms the centre-piece of both buildings, with rental prices at an all time high, the inclusion of so much green space is a bold move. The promenade circling this park has also been lifted directly from Hadid’s design - both featuring a concentric ring pattern (seen below). As if the world of athletics had enough on its plate with doping scandals, now plagiarism appears to be rife.

The biggest issue however, is the location. Kuma has unashamedly chosen the exact same spot to design a (near identical) stadium that Zaha Hadid chose for her stadium.

It doesn’t end there either. Both Stadia include a large number of seats, which most would agree is a hang-up from a bygone era. Our on-demand, instant streaming culture means that most sports fans will opt to watch the Olympic Cup at home, from the comfort of their hard, scratchy straw mats.

Kuma openly said at a press conference recently, “It was really hard designing a stadium, so in the end, we just copied Hadid’s.”



“Someone fetch me an umbrella please, my haters’ tears are getting me wet” Kuma added.



Another striking similarity is the inclusion of a huge open sky-light in both designs. It is also worth noting that, while Hadid’s designs were scrapped for being too costly, Kuma’s design seems to be un-finished. A large portion of the roof (not including the massive sports-hole) remains uncovered, leaving the huge number of seats exposed to the elements. Better keep a towel handy.

All in all, Kuma’s glorified timber playground is quite a dry imagining. Looking at the wider context, we start to see elements taken from stadia across the globe. The entrance, for example, is reminiscent of that of Herzog and De Moron’s Bird’s Nest in Beijing, in that they both allow passage into and out of the stadium. Both Kuma’s Tokyo Olympic Stadium, and Munich’s Olympiastadion take on quite an Olympic scale, in that they are both Olympic Stadia. Coincidence? I think not.

In a statement given to The Japanese news source magazine Herald Sushi Weekly, Kuma pointed out that his design was “completely different, since it has seats for 80,000, whereas Hadid’s design only had seats for 80,000”.

Kuma also went on to say: “Like Hadid, I’m also really bitter that people are making justified remarks about my design. They have no right to be so logical, don’t they know that good design costs trillions of Yen and years upon years worth of shameless copying?”

In short, when 2020 eventually rolls round and we all log onto Netflix to watch the Olympic Cup unfold, we will be staring at an empty stadium that is completely indistinguishable from Hadid’s offering.