Tokyo Olympic stadium
One outstanding feature of modern architecture in Japan is that it's ugly. Tokyo and other large cities brim with ugliness deliberately inflicted by unnatural aesthetics advocated by wrong-thinking government, developers and the media. Look at Tokyo. While in many ways it is a fantastic city, in many other ways it can be called a disaster. Currently a debate is ongoing in Japan about the construction of a new National Stadium for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. The winning 80,000-seat design by the British female architect Zaha Hadid somewhat resembles a giant bicycle helmet, or a giant female sex organ. It was the designed endorsed by the government when it made its final pitch to the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires in September 2013 that won it the 2020 games over competitors Istanbul and Madrid. But since then there has been considerable - and not unexpected - back-tracking on promises the Japanese made - cost estimates, site locations, readiness deadlines, and even the stadium itself. The old National Stadium, called the “Kokuritsu kyogijou,” built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, is currently being demolished to prepare the site for the new stadium. So in a sense it is too late to turn back now. But there are some critics here who are unrelenting in their campaign to at least change the proposed design, calling it too large for the site, or incompatible with the surrounding architecture, etc. Changing the design might also reduce the estimated cost as well as shrink its size.
I think that arguments that the proposed new National Stadium design might ruin the surrounding landscape have less credibility since Japanese have already ruined their landscape. Long ago by pouring concrete everywhere and by deliberately demolishing historic buildings for modern glass and steel. (The Japanese attitude towards old buildings is comparable to Americans’ attitude towards old clothes. While aesthetics in the West revere old buildings Asians do not, and they readily destroy what foreigners consider heritage landmarks.) How much more harm could an ugly stadium do, really? Japanese have a long history of borderline, questionable aesthetic principles and practices. You think bonsai is beautiful? No, it's a hate crime against Nature. You think cherry blossom viewing is beautiful? It's a disgusting bit of ugliness - not the blossoms, but the people who crowd around them.
Of course, the stadium and the Olympics themselves are a terrible mistake, but certainly not for aesthetic reasons. Tokyo won the 2020 Games in September 2013 by lying, subterfuge, obfuscation, dishonesty, etc. The awarding of the Games is a contract between the IOC and the host, so it is too late now to credibly change the contract in such fundamental ways come ruin or rapture. I want the stadium to go ahead as planned although I rue being taxed to pay for it. I will certainly never see it or benefit from it in any way. Organized competitive team sports are immoral, depraved, socially destructive, mean and stupid. And so are the organizations that promote them. But I want people to be true. This is what Tokyo served up for itself, now eat it! Go ahead and eat.