Visit-1: Yoyogi Olympic Gymnasium (under renovation works) by Kenzo Tange (1964)

Visit-2: New National Stadium (under construction) by Kengo Kuma (2020)

Participants: 30 financial professionals and spouses from Australia

Client: Destination Asia, Japan

Navigator: Shigeru Yamaki & Nahoko Wada

The visitors were a group of financial professionals from Australia interested in the sites for the 2020 Olympic Games. The New National Stadium was under construction at full speed to meet the completion deadline of November 2019 and all the existing facilities were being updated for the 2020. Thus, the bus tour began at Hilton Tokyo to visit three construction sites; Yoyogi Olympic Gymnasium, Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium and the New National Stadium in this order and then return to the hotel. The tour consisted of; brief explanation in the bus and at the site and a walk around the sites. Some of the topics were; brief history of each site, distinctly different architectural expressions of the facilities based on the different eras and architects’ views to architecture.

Shigeru Yamaki