Hadid says Japan trying to take stadium design copyrights

Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. AFP FILE PHOTO

TOKYO—British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid says the Japan Sport Council is withholding money owed for work on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic stadium design while demanding her company give up claims to copyrights.

The Japan Sport Council said in a statement read over the phone on Thursday that it was seeking to resolve the issue but would not comment on specifics of the contract with London-based Zaha Hadid Architects, or ZHA.

Hadid contends the sports body is demanding a transfer of the copyright for the design work in exchange for an overdue final payment.

After her original design was rejected as too costly, Hadid complained the new design chosen by the Sport Council, by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, draws heavily from her earlier work.

Hadid’s company said it has been trying since October to obtain the payment by the SportCouncil. The amount of the payment was not given.

“We can confirm that we received and rejected a written request from the Japan SportCouncil to modify our existing contract to allow the transfer of the copyright of the detailed design for Japan National Stadium, owned by ZHA, in exchange for an overdue final payment,” the company said in a statement.

ZHA’s statement said it had also refused to sign another new clause for the contract, in exchange for the payment, requiring her design team to not “provide information or comment on the project.”

The company said it hoped to resolve the disagreement over intellectual property for the stadium design through discussions.

The consortium working on the new stadium includes two Japanese companies that earlier worked with Hadid. The outer structure of Kuma’s design is smaller and more understated than Hadid’s, which was likened by some critics to a bicycle helmet or spaceship that would have jarred with the surrounding landscape. But details of the layout and internal aspects of the structure are considered to be similar.