Yoyogi Gymnasium

The Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan, designed by Kenzo Tange, was built for the 1964 Summer Olympic Games and is a hybridization of western modernist aesthetics and traditional Japanese architecture.

Tange’s structural design creates sweeping curves that appear to drape from two large, central supporting cables.

The gymnasium is the larger of two arenas for the 1964 Summer Olympic Games both of which are designed by Tange and employ similar structural principles and aesthetics. The national gymnasium was designed to be occupied by 10,500 people primarily for the Olympic swimming and diving competitions. However, it was able to be transformed into a space to accommodate for larger events such as basketball and ice hockey.

Influenced by Le Corbusier’s Philip’s Pavilion and Eero Saarinen’s hockey stadium at Yale University, Tange became intrigued with structure and its tensile and geometric potential. The result is a symmetrical suspension structure that drapes from the central structural spine. It‘s flowing surfaces make the minimal surface structure appear as a fabric suspended by two simple supports that’s being pulled into tension by the landscape.