Toyota Stadium
Kisho Kurokawa

February 11, 2002 /

Toyota, Japan

Photo courtesy Kisho Kurokawa & Associates

The Toyota Stadium was planned adjacent to the Toyota Bridge in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of municipalization of the City of Toyota.

The Toyota Bridge is a part of the main pedestrian-based road system of the city. This super-modern bridge attaches an importance to pedestrians and not to cars, by giving pedestrians more space than the roadway, and it also provides movable stairs giving direct access to the waterfront.

Photo courtesy Kisho Kurokawa & Associates

In addition, the bridge provides a direct pedestrian access to the plaza of the stadium for large numbers of people when soccer games or any other events are held.

Photo courtesy Kisho Kurokawa & Associates

The Stadium was originally designed to accommodate 60,000 spectators when Toyota was selected to be one of the fifteen cities for the Japan World-Cup Semi-Final Game. Later as Japan and South Korea cosponsored the World-Cup, the possible venues were reduced to ten cities.

Toyota City in Aichi Prefecture was left out of the selection, despite the fact that it has the third largest population density. As a result the design, already in process, was reduced to accommodate 45,000 spectators.

Photo courtesy Kisho Kurokawa & Associates

To accommodate that many spectator on a site, only half the size of the Oita Stadium site, that included a river embankment and an irrigation ditch for the preservation of the area, Kuokawa designed inclined vertical wall pillars to support the seating sections, and four huge independent masts to carry the roof.

Photo courtesy Kisho Kurokawa & Associates

In order to enable a multifunctional usage of the facility, a movable roof became an additional condition of the new design. The roof was designed for natural light to reach the lawn on the ground while closed and still cover the main stand seats completely when opened.

Photo courtesy Kisho Kurokawa & Associates

Both wings of the suspended roof, reminiscent of the traditional shape of the Japanese roof, were designed parallel to each other to enable the light-weight roof to move along the rails, opening and closing like a folding Japanese fan, by an air-pillow method.

Photo courtesy Kisho Kurokawa & Associates

The spectators' seats in the Toyota Stadium, said to be the "Number One" in the world among experts and professional players, are located up to the very last extention along the line of the stadium field.

Photo courtesy Kisho Kurokawa & Associates

The entire structure is steel covered with fireproof pre-cast slabs enabling a reduction of the overall weight of the structure. The structural concept of the Toyota Stadium was done in collaboration with Ove ARUP & Partners Japan Ltd.

Photo courtesy Kisho Kurokawa & Associates