The Ariake Gymnastics Centre is designed to function in two phases; initially as a Olympic sports facility, it will be converted into a permanent exhibition hall.

The Ariake Gymnastics Centre is desi­gned to func­tion in two phases; initi­ally as a tempo­rary inter­na­tional sports compe­ti­tion faci­lity, then, after taking out the tempo­rary spec­tator stands, it will be converted into a perma­nent exhi­bi­tion hall.

A unique feature of this faci­lity is its exten­sive and gene­rous use of timber throug­hout the buil­ding. This is a posi­tive realiza­tion of “wooded faci­li­ties” and “sustaina­bi­lity” announced in the Tokyo 2020 candi­dacy file. The mate­rial was also selected to express the memory of this district which was once a timber storage pond.

Based on the archi­tec­tural concept of “a wooden vessel floa­ting in the bay area,” timber is used wherever possible, speci­fi­cally in the roof frame struc­ture, facade, spec­tator seats, exte­rior walls, etc. while carefully conside­ring the charac­te­ristics of wood in each appli­ca­tion.

Function, structure, and space are tightly combined to achieve beauty and richness in simplicity, which is the essence of Japanese traditional wood architecture.

The arena ceiling is a wood frame struc­ture desi­gned to reduce the weight of the overall struc­ture. The concourse space, where spec­ta­tors approach the arena, is inten­tio­nally placed outdoors. The wood facade takes into account acou­stic and thermal insu­la­tion proper­ties.

Func­tion, struc­ture, and space are tightly combined to achieve beauty and rich­ness in simpli­city, which is the essence of Japa­nese tradi­tional wood archi­tec­ture that we hope spec­ta­tors and athletes from all over the world will expe­ri­ence.  

The site is located in the midst of a vast, wide-open land­scape along a canal. Yet the design also needed to take into account the resi­den­tial envi­ron­ment of the medium-rise and high-rise condo­mi­nium buil­dings in the vici­nity. The hori­zon­tally long and flowing lines were achieved by keeping the buil­ding height as low as possible, redu­cing the overall volume and control­ling the height of the eaves.

Lightening the weight of the structure by using wood for the roof is effective for buildings constructed on sites with poor soil conditions.

By posi­tio­ning the circu­la­tion concourse on the outside of the buil­ding and crea­ting an open and broad approach space, the design attempts to avoid the impene­trable exte­rior typi­cally found on large-scale sports faci­li­ties created by the mono­li­thic walls.

Ligh­tening the weight of the struc­ture by using wood for the roof is effec­tive for buil­dings cons­tructed on sites with poor soil condi­tions. In this project, we adopted a simple struc­ture that uses single members of large glued lami­nated timber with high heat capa­city, rather than trusses consis­ting of a number of small members, to achieve both fire resis­tance perfor­mance and struc­tural stabi­lity.

Japan’s first complex struc­tural system using Timber Beam Strings Struc­ture and Canti­lever Trusses created a large wood-frame space that dyna­mi­cally covers the arena.