Major development spurred on by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has greatly reduced opportunities for smaller architecture studios in the city, according to Atelier Bow-Wow.
The upcoming Olympic Games has provided few opportunities for local designers and development related to the event has forced many smaller studios to look for work outside the city said Atelier Bow-Wow founders' Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima.
"We independent artists are banned and totally deleted from the list of the designers," Tsukamoto said.
"They want a big firm, a corporate firm to work together with a construction company," he continued. "There's no chance for independent architects. We are totally kicked out of Tokyo."
Tsukamoto and Kaijima spoke to Dezeen about the architectural climate at the opening of the Made in Tokyo at New York's Japan Society. The studio curated and designed the showcase compare the Japanese city at the time of the 1964 Summer Olympics, which was also held in Tokyo, with the current situation. "We are architects who are not necessary for Olympic Games 2020"
When asked about the impact of next year's tournament on the city, Tsukamoto said that stringent regulations had left younger, emerging studios like themselves out of the running.
He cited the process used to select Japanese architect Kengo Kuma as the architect of the National Stadium as an example of the issue.
Kuma was chosen following an anonymous competition ? after the Jap...