ARK NOVA BY ARATA ISOZAKI

The project is the brainchild of using music to bring hope and promise to those who are suffering from the tragic major earthquake in Japan on March 11, 2011: this is the idea and goal of the ARK NOVA project initiated by LUCERNE FESTIVAL and Kajimoto Music.

The multi-component design includes a hall with seating for between 500 to 700 spectators. The inflatable shell is made of an elastic material that allows quick erection and dismantling.

The hall will provide an absolutely unique platform for performances and appearances encompassing classical music, jazz, dance, multimedia and interdisciplinary artistic projects by leading artists and ensembles from around the world.

This impressive hall should not only serve as a platform for performances but also as a place to meet, find creative inspiration and thus make a lasting contribution towards returning normalcy to the region. The project is kindly supported by UBS.

The concert hall ARK NOVA created by Arata Isozaki and AnishKapoor is an air-inflated membrane structure which equipped with the necessary stage and sound equipment.

The membrane can be folded up and the equipment dismantled and loaded on a truck, so they can be brought to each site. It is envisioned to seat about 500 during an orchestra performance, and is planned to have a width of 30m, length of 36m and maximum height of 18m.

Isozaki is working on this project in close collaboration with the Indian-born British sculptor Anish Kapoor, who is responsible for the design of the building’s shell. Yasuhisa Toyota from Nagata Acoustics is responsible for the hall’s acoustic design, and David Staples from Theatre Projects in London is acting as the specialist theatre consultant.

An artistic committee with renowned personalities associated with the LUCERNE FESTIVAL will support the program planning. The performances are intended to be supported by sponsors and supporters in order to provide the population of the region with free access to the programs being presented. 

ARTS MAEBASHI BY TOSHIHIRO MIZUTANI ARCHITECTS

Arts Maebashiwas established as an arts and culture facility that enables the residents of Maebashi City to become proactively involved in the facility's business management, operation, appreciation and promotion.

 

In addition to its rebirth as an art museum, the new facility was also created to revitalize the downtown area. While focusing on the arts, its purpose is to provide for a wide range activities, diverse forms of participation, and creation through collaboration.

We are planning the architectural design according to three major considerations: 1) make it a museum with a walkway that tours the whole facility, 2) preserve the form (memory) of existing buildings, and maximize the appeal of the conversion, and 3) create an attractive locale that is not only for exhibitions but can also be used actively by the public.

The facility's exterior converts the architecture of structure's commercial past using white perforated metal, forming a symbolic design that connects the facility with the city as well as Maebashi's past with its present.

The building's exterior utilizes perforated aluminum placed along the existing wall as if dressing the building in new clothing, creating an expression to serve as the city's new face. With this perforated metal as a starting point, the visual identity and sign design are based on the concept of lines connecting points together.

These scattered points (the holes) are connected by lines, and become a design that creates letters and pictograms. Each point represents people, city, art, and other various elements.

The lines connecting these points represent the activities of Arts Maebashi. The symbolic logo as well takes the "mae" (meaning "before") and the "M" in Maebashi as its motif; all of the letters are connected by unseen points and lines.

The relationship between these points and lines is the power of creation; the power to create new forms in a space that was previously empty. It symbolizes the way Arts Maebashi will show us new possibilities in art through its activities and as a platform that connects people.

The interior of the art museum is unique in having a series of exhibition rooms with diverse spatial and cross-sectional volume structured to connect the entire facility.

As visitors walk around the facility, entranceways of varied rectangular shapes and dimensions connecting the exhibition rooms will allow visitors to feel various sense of distances as they come across the works to be appreciated, the charms of the building itself, and the activities of the people inside.

Location: Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan

Architect: Toshihiro Mizutani Architects

Electric System: Tone-grup

Construction: Yamato Sanyo

Area: 5,517.38 m2

Year: October 2012

Grand Opening: October 2013

TOKYO 2020 OLYMPIC GAMES PLAN

International Broadcast Center

The Tokyo 2020 Games will raise environmental awareness and encourage action, with sport as a driving force. A favourable environment is an essential element in achieving outstanding performance.

Plans for designing and building sustainable Venues 15 of the 37 competition venues that will host events for the Tokyo 2020 Games will be existing buildings, and 28 of these venues are located within 8 km of the Olympic Village, minimising the travel environmental footprint, especially through the maximum use of public transport, and helping make the Games operations efficient.

Olympic Village

Venues will be built or renovated according to strict green building standards and guidelines. Also, because new venues will be built on vacant land within urban areas, they will have no adverse effect on local communities, natural or cultural resources. For all athletes, the Olympic Village is the heart of the Olympic Games and for Tokyo 2020. Tokyo 2020 will provide a single Olympic Village at the waterfront site of Harumi Pier, one of the main gateways to Tokyo.

Olympic Stadium by Zaha Hadid

In the Tokyo 2020 Games plan, we have incorporated:

• Existing venues representative of the very heart of Olympic legacy. In continuous use and with regular upgrades since the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games, venues used for those Games have played an important part in the life of Tokyo and 56 years later are evidence of Tokyo and Japan’s commitment to sport and the power of a sustainable vision.

Olympic Gymnastic Centre

• Existing venues, located in iconic buildings and surrounds, which serve the sporting, cultural and economic needs of the city and the region. Many of these venues have already hosted events at the highest levels of international sport. Some will be appropriately refurbished for the 2020 Games and all of them will be capable of delivering the highest standard of Games operations and sports presentation, in collaboration with the International Federations.

Olympic Velodrome

• New permanent venues that are woven into the vision and needs of modern Tokyo, sustainably filling existing gaps in the provision of sport and cultural centres and responding to the identified needs of a growing, vibrant metropolis.

Ariake Arena

• Temporary venues delivered to the highest standards by creative designers who keep sustainability high on their agenda. Each Games expands the boundaries of this venue delivery system and Tokyo 2020 will use Japan’s position as one of the world’s leading innovators to deliver venues worthy of Olympic sport, with plans and practices of highly sustainability.

Olympic Aquatics Centre

• Venues that will be practical and dynamic hosts to both the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games events, through Tokyo’s commitment to universal design standards and barrier free environments.

Miyagi Stadium

Of the 37 proposed Tokyo 2020 competition venues, 15 venues (41%) exist, with 2 of these benefitting from permanent refurbishment required for the 2020 Games.

Saitama Stadium

The choice of venues, their construction status and their location, whilst ensuring the Tokyo 2020 Games remain strongly athlete-focused and compact, is also fully aligned with the social, development and sustainability agenda for Tokyo, especially under the long-term urban plan “Tokyo Vision 2020”.

1 Odaiba Marine Park - 2 Dream Island Stadium - 3 Tokyo Big Sight Hall B

4 Youth Plaza Arenas A and B - 5 Ariake Tennis Par - 6 Tokyo Stadium