Engineering consultant Arup will be advising the city of Tokyo on its masterplan for the city’s Olympics and Paralympics Games in 2020, after winning the contract to be lead adviser to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Tokyo Organising Committee.
Working jointly with fellow design consultant Aecom, Arup will also advise on the design briefs for the venues and contribute to the strategy development from design and construction through to the legacy transformation.
Arup’s services for the Tokyo Olympics will also include advice on cross-sectoral specialty areas such as transport, security, sustainability and legacy.
The win for Arup follows the signing of a co-operation agreement between the UK and Japan, signed in May at London’s Olympic Park.
Arup’s multidisciplinary team will run workshops with the client team in Tokyo to the venues in the Tokyo Bay Zone and Heritage Zone in the heart of Tokyo.
Leading Arup’s team will be Jerome Frost, who joined Arup as a director from the London Olympic Delivery Authority and was head of design and regeneration. Prior to the ODA, he worked for English Partnerships.
Frost told CM: “The biggest challenge globally for the Games is the legacy element. The bid process for getting awarded the Games is more complex now with an emphasis on what happens to the structures after the event. Early planning is of crucial importance to know what is needed and then testing the models.”
Frost said that Arup’s work on establishing London’s Olympic Park as a legacy destination is an example of urban renewal in host cities, and ensuring that major sporting events serve as a catalyst for long-term investment and development.
The centrepiece of the Tokyo’s Olympics will be the new £1bn, 80,000-seat national stadium designed by Zaha Hadid to host the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as athletics, paralympics, football and rugby events.
The 70m-high building will feature a retractable roof shaped like a giant bicycle helmet and is intended to replace the existing Kasumigaoka National Stadium. Japan is also expected to invest $4.5bn in a further 10 new-build venues.
