Modernity, space and national representation at the Tokyo Olympics 1964

Following the Olympics in 1964, there was a great development in the urban parts of the city. I found it interesting hearing how much the Olympics had actually influenced the city into what it is today. The buildings that were added in the years leading up to the Olympics were the fabrication for the city itself. The intentions were to improve the city, modernising it from what it was before, showing off the city and country to the rest of the world. Architecture which had been used in the games was ‘tokens of modernity’. Many developments were made, especially in the bullet-train, which runs through Japan. In 1964, the focus was the capital, which now was very architecturally diverse compared to other cities at the time.

After the redevelopment, Japan began to hold major sports events, which previously were not approved as it was too commercialised. This was a way in which the countries popularity could be vastly improved. I could relate this to today with the Olympics as they are now. Each country that holds the Olympics sees it as a way of being able to show off their country to everyone else in the world.

The work that was created for the games themselves is of a very modern style, with the Deconstructivist movement coming into play in the late 20^th century, a post modern  movement which was held in an exhibition at the MoMA in 1988, was something of its time. Very rectilinear shapes were used, with different angles. It was more a type of art that architecture and the artists of this movement were trying something that had never been tried before. Zaha Hadid was someone that I could relate to this style of work as I felt a lot of the shapes used in the 1964 build was closely related to her work.

The gymnasium, which was built at the time, grabbed my interest the most. I felt like it was extremely ahead of its time and could have potentially been built today. There could be links made with this style of architecture and the work of people such as Mies van der Rohe due to its very rectangular appearance.

Overall the reading wasn’t as interesting personally to be as some of the others have been. However I did find the style of architecture that was used in 1964 interesting, and I do feel like the architecture that was added to Japan in those years has shaped the country to what is it today.