Tadao Ando is considered the architect that best represents the minimalist movement, which is made of pure shapes and essential elements.

He is the only architect to have won the discipline’s four most prestigious prizes: the Pritzker (1995), Carlsberg (1992), Praemium Imperiale (1996), and Kyoto Prize (2002).

Born in Osaka in 1941, Tadao Ando gave up his career as a professional boxer in 1965 in order to follow his passion for architecture. Therefore he decided to embark on a long journey around the world to teach himself the architectural profession.

This “grand tour” was precisely the beginning of his training as an architect, until he started his first architectural firm in his home city in 1969.

TADAO ANDO AND HIS FIRST WORKS

At the beginning of his career, most of his works were dedicated to the designing of single-family houses, among which we should mention Tomishima House in Osaka, that was built in 1973 and later housed the offices of his architectural firm.

Whereas in 1976 he designed a small row house, in which he expressed his will to bring changes in society by means of architectural works, in order to improve the awful housing conditions of the time.

TADAO ANDO AND THE CONCEPT OF THE WALL

With the designs of Azuma House in 1979 and Koshino House in 1980, one of the most important traits of the Japanese architect’s artistic philosophy of composition emerges, that is the wall.

The concept of the wall finds its full expression in Tadao Ando’s later religious projects.

The works by the Japanese architect are strongly influenced by the modern movement, especially by Le Corbusier’s artistic philosophy of composition, but this main influence is also accompanied by the connection with the Japanese traditional architecture, which lends an “artisanal” nature to Tadao Ando’s works, especially when it comes to finishing the details.

Tadao Ando gained international fame in the ‘80s, when he signed a number of projects including the Chapel of the Wind, built in 1986, the Chapel on the Water, built in Hokkaido in 1988, and the Church of Light.

TADAO ANDO ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN CONCEPT

It is no coincidence that these three works are dedicated to natural elements such as the wind, the water and the light. In these works, Tadao Ando merges the use of rational, minimalist shapes and the presence of natural elements which highlight the strength of its pure shapes.

The works by the Japanese architect almost exclusively consider the use of exposed reinforced concrete, combined with the use of wood, stone and, above all, light.

Tadao Ando’s meditative design draws our attention to the beauty in silence and the power of simplicity.

Light is used as a material, in order to give strength, life, personality to the project. The highest expression of the relationship between Tadao Ando and light as a compositional and material element is definitely the Church of Light.

TADAO ANDO AND CHURCH OF LIGHT

The Church of Light consists of a reinforced concrete parallelepiped, in which one of the smaller walls, the one behind the altar, is not a full element. A cross-shaped beam of light indeed “cuts” the entire depth of the wall. This way, a cruciform light source is created, which is the only reference to religious symbolism in the liturgical hall.

 

 

The orientation of the plan was designed so that this cut of light would be south-oriented and would therefore collect the most direct sunrays throughout the entire day.

TADAO ANDO – WATER TEMPLE

The Water Temple is a greatly “destructive” sensory experience compared to the thousand-year-old temple-building tradition in Japan. Honpukuji, the Water Temple, was built between 1990 and 1991. This underground sanctuary was the residence of Japan’s oldest Tantric Buddhism cult, founded in 815, and is located under a large oval lotus pond. The resulting experience is totally immersive: the experience of being in an architectural space.

TADAO ANDO’S WORKS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA

There are numerous works by Tadao Ando in Europe and America, of which the first one, both time-wise and in order of importance, is definitely the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Built between 1991 and 2001, this building stems from Joseph Pulitzer’s will to create a new space for his collection of modern and contemporary art within the Arts District in St. Louis, which was experiencing great decay.

Ando didn’t betray his artistic philosophy of composition when he created a building made of exposed reinforced concrete which, from the outside, looks like a massive, closed building, like some sort of safe for valuables, while indoors the large glass windows let the light as well as glimpses of the surrounding landscape come inside, thus accompanying the visitors throughout the exhibition itinerary.

In Europe, after the first creation of the Japan Pavilion for Expo 1992 in Seville, Tadao Ando created the new location for seminars at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein.

TADAO ANDO IN NEW YORK

In 2017, in New York, Tadao Ando completed the 152 Elizabeth, a seven-storey residential building in the heart of Nolita. That was the first work by the Japanese architect in the Big Apple. Developed by Sumaida + Khurana which aimed to create a unique architectural value, today the 152 Elizabeth has proven to be a benchmark for the quality of the residential development of that area. Cast-in-place concrete, burnished metal, wide use of glass and a wall of green plants: all of the main features of Tadao Ando’s philosophy are there.

TADAO ANDO AND THE INTERVENTION AT THE VITRA CAMPUS

For the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, the headquarters of the well-known company that manufactures designer pieces of furniture and furnishing accessories, Tadao Ando created the new location for seminars (1993). The building is located in front of the Vitra Museum designed by Frank O. Gehry, and is antithetical to it both in terms of position and in terms of linguistic approach.

Ando’s building consists of two floors, one of which is underground and includes a series of conference rooms. It’s a calm, sober intervention that is in line with the Japanese architect’s mindset and is characterized by a very neat spatial articulation.

One of the main features of this building is the path that leads to the entrance of the pavilion and has got a strong and meaningful connection with the meditation paths in the gardens of the Japanese monasteries. It’s a long wall made of exposed reinforced concrete that leads the visitor from the garden to the entrance. Since this building is immersed in an area of the campus garden that is full of cherry trees, Tadao Ando’s goal was to preserve as many trees as possible. Cherry trees are indeed very important in the Japanese tradition and, in order to recall the memory of the only three trees that were chopped down to erect the building, some leaves impressed in concrete were added to the exterior wall.

TADAO ANDO AND THE RESTORATION WORKS

In his Venice projects, Tadao Ando had to deal with restoration works of historic buildings located in very important contexts, besides being crucial points of the City of Water.

At Palazzo Grassi he also had to face, besides a building overlooking the Grand Canal, a previous restoration intervention by the architect Gae Aulenti.

The project for Palazzo Grassi interprets the relationship between old and modern in a new way. For his exhibition itinerary inside the building, Ando imagined the interposition of some sort of hiatus, like an interruption of expression, represented by the white walls and the light grey flooring which stand for the “new”, in order to make the richness of old even more surprising by way of contrast.

TADAO ANDO AND PUNTA DELLA DOGANA

The new centre for Contemporary Art Punta della Dogana of the François Pinault Foundation was opened in 2009. Tadao Ando’s intervention for this historic building overlooking a strategic spot of the city is the result of a thorough research aimed at reinventing the preexisting works, thus preserving the original structure while trying to best connect it with modernity.

The Punta della Dogana building is characterized by a simple, rational structure. Its volume creates a triangle, which is in line with the geographical conformation of the Dorsoduro island, while the inside is divided into long rectangles. The intervention aims to restore the first volumes, wherever possible, and to reestablish the original morphology of the load-bearing structures. Ando contrasts the original elements and materials with the use of glass plates and exposed reinforced concrete in order to create the connection between old and new.

TADAO ANDO AND THE TEATRINO DI PALAZZO GRASSI

As the final stage of François Pinault’s cultural project in Venice, in 2013 Tadao Ando also found himself working in the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi. The building was left in a state of neglect when the theatre closed in 1978, and Tadao Ando decided to intervene by keeping the façades intact, while the cladding and the interiors would be the true protagonists of the renovation.

Ando interprets indeed the inside of the theatre by planning all of those rooms that have nothing to do with the museum itself, but that are still relevant to the activity of Palazzo Grassi, such as conference rooms. The peculiarity of this intervention is precisely the dialogue between the outside of the historic building and the inside that unfolds into a series of rooms in which flat, shiny surfaces, asymmetric skylights and triangle cuts prevail, embracing the minimalist style.

TADAO ANDO AND THE BOURSE DE COMMERCE

A very important project Tadao Ando is working on is the Bourse de Commerce, the new museum commissioned by François Pinault that is going to host his art collection of the former Stock Exchange and should open in Paris in 2019.

The goal is to renovate an 18^th century building in a modern way, to regenerate it and to transform it into a contemporary art museum. Like for the interventions of Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, Tadao Ando introduces new architectural elements so that the historic building can communicate with its new purpose.

Ando’s project is focused on the addition of a new volume, that is a homogeneous concrete cylinder under the dome of the historic building.

The dome is the distinctive element of the Bourse de Commerce building, and the new volume is placed under it precisely to highlight this peculiarity, in a constant dialogue between old and new.

TADAO ANDO: PROJECTS

Tomishima House	Osaka	Japan	1973
Uchida House		Japan	1974
Uno House	Kyoto	Japan	1974
Hiraoka House	Hyōgo	Japan	1974
Shibata House	Ashiya, Hyogo	Japan	1974
Tatsumi House	Osaka	Japan	1975
Soseikan-Yamaguchi House	Hyōgo	Japan	1975
Takahashi House	Ashiya, Hyōgo	Japan	1975
Matsumura House	Kobe	Japan	1975
Sumiyoshi (Azuma House)	Sumiyoshi, Osaka	Japan	1976
Hirabayashi House	Osaka	Japan	1976
Bansho House	Aichi	Japan	1976
Tezukayama Square	Sumiyoshi, Osaka	Japan	1976
Tezukayama-Manabe House	Osaka	Japan	1977
Wall House (Matsumoto House)	Ashiya, Hyōgo	Japan	1977
Glass Block House (Ishihara House)	Osaka	Japan	1978
Okusu House	Setagaya, Tokyo	Japan	1978
Glass Block Wall (Horiuchi House)	Sumiyoshi, Osaka	Japan	1979
Katayama	Nishinomiya, Hyōgo	Japan	1979
Onishi House	Sumiyoshi, Osaka	Japan	1979
Matsutani House	Kyoto	Japan	1979
Ueda House	Okayama	Japan	1979
Passo	Takamatsu, Kagawa	Japan	1980
Matsumoto House	Wakayama, zona di Wakayama	Japan	1980
Fuku House	Wakayama, Wakayama	Japan	1980
Bansho House Addition	Aichi	Japan	1981
Koshino House	Ashiya, Hyōgo	Japan	1981
Kojima Housing (Sato House)	Okayama	Japan	1981
Oyodo Atelier	Osaka	Japan	1981
Tea House – Soseikan-Yamaguchi House	Hyōgo	Japan	1982
Ishii House	Shizuoka	Japan	1982
Akabane House	Setagaya, Tokyo	Japan	1982
Kujo Townhouse (Izutsu House)	Osaka	Japan	1982
Rokko Housing One	Rokko, Hyōgo	Japan	1983
Bigi Atelier	Shibuya, Tokyo	Japan	1983
Umemiya House	Kobe	Japan	1983
Kaneko House	Shibuya, Tokyo	Japan	1983
Festival	Naha, Okinawa	Japan	1984
Volte	Kyoto	Japan	1984
Koshino House Addition	Ashiya, Hyōgo	Japan	1984
Melrose, Meguro	Tokyo	Japan	1984
Uejo House	Osaka	Japan	1984
Ota House	Okayama	Japan	1984
Moteki	Kobe	Japan	1984
Shinsaibashi TO Building	Osaka	Japan	1984
Iwasa House	Ashiya, Hyōgo	Japan	1984
Hata	Nishinomiya, Hyōgo	Japan	1984
Atelier Yoshie Inaba	Shibuya, Tokyo	Japan	1985
Jun Island	Kobe	Japan	1985
Mon-petit-chou	Kyoto	Japan	1985
Guest House for Hattori House	Osaka	Japan	1985
Taiyō Cement Headquarters Building	Osaka	Japan	1986
TS Building	Osaka	Japan	1986
Rokko Church	Kobe	Japan	1986
Old / New Rokkov	Kobe	Japan	1986
Kidosaki House	Setagaya, Tokyo	Japan	1986
Fukuhara Clinic	Setagaya, Tokyo	Japan	1986
Sasaki House	Minato, Tokyo	Japan	1986
Main Pavilion for Tennoji Fair	Osaka	Japan	1987
Karaza Theatre	Tokyo	Japan	1987
Ueda House (restyling)	Okayama	Japan	1987
Church	Tomamu, Hokkaido	Japan	1988
Akka Gallery	Osaka	Japan	1988
Children Museum	Himeji, Hyōgo	Japan	1989
Church of Light	Area di Ibaraki, Osaka	Japan	1989
Collection	Minato, Tokyo	Japan	1989
Morozoff P & P Studio	Kobe	Japan	1989
Raika	Osaka	Japan	1989
Natsukawa	Hikone, Shiga	Japan	1989
Yao Clinic, Neyagawa	Osaka	Japan	1989
Matsutani House (restyling)	Kyoto	Japan	1990
Ito House, Setagaya	Tokyo	Japan	1990
Iwasa House Addition	Ashiya, Hyōgo	Japan	1990
Giardino delle Belle Arti	Osaka	Japan	1990
S Building	Osaka	Japan	1990
Water Temple	Isola di Awaji, Hyōgo	Japan	1991
Atelier Oyodo II	Osaka	Japan	1991
II	Kyoto	Japan	1991
Literature Museum	Himeji, Hyōgo	Japan	1991
Sayoh Housing	Hyōgo	Japan	1991
Minolta Seminar House	Kobe	Japan	1991
Benesse House	Naoshima, Kagawa	Japan	1992
Japanese Pavillon Expo 92	Siviglia	Spain	1992
Otemae Art Center	Nishinomiya, Hyōgo	Japan	1992
Museum Forest of Tombs	Kumamoto	Japan	1992
Rokko Housing Two	Rokko, Kobe	Japan	1993
Vitra Seminar House	Weil am Rhein	Germany	1993
Noda Gallery	Kobe	Japan	1993
YKK Seminar House	Chiba	Japan	1993
Suntory Museum	Osaka	Japan	1994
Maxray Building	Osaka	Japan	1994
Chikatsu Asuka Museum	Osaka	Japan	1994
Kiyo Bank, Sakai Building	Sakai, Osaka	Japan	1994
Garden of Fine Art	Kyoto	Japan	1994
Wood Museum	Kami, Hyōgo	Japan	1994
Inamori Auditorium	Kagoshima	Japan	1994
Nariwa Museum	Okayama	Japan	1994
Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum	Naoshima, Kagawa	Japan	1995
Atelier Oyodo Annex	Osaka	Japan	1995
Nagaragawa Center	Gifu	Japan	1995
Naoshima Museum Art Contemporary	Naoshima, Kagawa	Japan	1995
Meditation Space, UNESCO	Parigi	France	1995
Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art	Kyoto	Japan	1995
Shanghai Pusan Ferry Terminal	Osaka	Japan	1996
Museum of Literature II, Himeji	Hyōgo	Japan	1996
Chiisaime Gallery (Sawada House)	Nishinomiya, Hyōgo	Japan	1996
Gojo Museum	Gojo, Nara	Japan	1997
Toto Seminar House	Hyōgo	Japan	1997
Natural Forest Museum – Yokogurayama	Kōchi	Japan	1997
Harima Kogen Higashi Primary School & Junior High School	Hyōgo	Japan	1997
Koumi Kogen Museum	Nagano	Japan	1997
Eychaner / Lee House	Chicago, Illinois	USA	1997
Daikoku Denki	Aichi	Japan	1998
Daylight Museum	Shiga	Japan	1998
Junichi Watanabe Memorial Hall	Sapporo	Japan	1998
Asahi Shimbun Okayama Bureau	Okayama	Japan	1998
Siddhartha Children and Women Hospital	Butwal	Nepal	1998
Church of the Light Sunday School	Ibaraki, Osaka	Japan	1999
Rokko Housing III ‘	Kobe	Japan	1999
Shell Museum, Nishinomiya	Hyōgo	Japan	1999
Fabrica (Benetton Communication Research Center)	Villorba	Italy	2000
Awaji-Yumebutai	Hyōgo	Japan	2000
Rockfield Shizuoka Factory	Shizuoka	Japan	2000
Pulitzer Arts Foundation	St. Louis, nel Missouri	USA	2001
Komyo-ji	Saijō, Ehime	Japan	2001
Ryotaro Shiba Memorial Museum	Higashiosaka, area di Osaka	Japan	2001
Armani World Headquarters	Milano	Italy	2001
Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of Art	Kobe, Hyōgo	Japan	2002
Fort Worth Museum Art Contemporary	Fort Worth, Texas	USA	2002
Piccadilly Gardens	Manchester	UK	2003
4×4 House	Kobe	Japan	2003
Invisible House	Ponzano Veneto	Italy	2004
Chichu Art Museum	Naoshima, Kagawa	Japan	2004
Langen Foundation	Neuss	Germany	2004
Gunma Insect World Insect Observation Hall	Kiryū, Gunma	Japan	2005
Picture Book Museum	Iwaki, Fukushima	Japan	2005
Museo di Saka no Ue no Kumo	Matsuyama, Ehime	Japan	2006
Morimoto (restaurant)	Chelsea Market, Manhattan	USA	2005
Sakura Garden	Osaka	Japan	2006
Omotesando Hills, Jingumae 4-Chome	Tokyo	Japan	2006
House in Shiga	Ōtsu, Shiga	Japan	2006
21 21 Design Sight	Minato, Tokyo	Japan	2007
Stone Hill Center expansion for the Clark Art Institute	Williamstown, Massachusetts	USA	2008
Glass House	Seopjikoji	South Korea	2008
Genius Loci	Seopjikoji	South Korea	2008
Punta della Dogana (restoration)	Venezia	Italy	2009
Tokyo Skytree	Tokyo	Japan	2009
House, stable, and mausoleum for fashion designer and film director Tom Ford’s Cerro Pelon Ranch	Santa Fe, New Mexico	USA	2009
Rebuilding the Kobe Kaisei Hospital	Nada Ward, Kobe	Japan	2009
Gate of Creation, Universidad de Monterrey	Monterrey	Mexico	2009
NIWAKA Building	Kyoto	Japan	2009
Capella Niseko Resort and Residences	Niseko, distretto di Abuta, Shiribeshi, Hokkaido	Japan	2010
Interior design of Miklós Ybl Villa	Budapest	Hungary	2010
Kaminoge Station, Tokyu Corporation	Tokyo	Japan	2011
Centro Roberto Garza Sada of Art Architecture and Design	Monterrey	Mexico	2012
Akita Museum of Art	Akita, Akita	Japan	2012
Bonte Museum	Seogwipo	South Korea	2012
Asia Museum of Modern Art	Wufeng, Taichung	Taiwan	2013
Hansol Museum (Museum SAN)	Wonju	South Korea	2013
Aurora Museum	Shanghai	China	2013
Visitor, Exhibition and Conference Center, Clark Art Institute	Williamstown, Massachusetts	USA	2014
Casa Wabi	Puerto Escondido, Oax	Mexico	2014
JCC (Jaeneung Culture Center)	Seoul	South Korea	2015
Hill of the Buddha	Sapporo	Japan	2015
Pearl Art Museum	Shanghai	China	2017
152 Elizabeth Street Condominiums	New York, New York	USA	2018
Wrightwood 659	Chicago	USA	2018

TADAO ANDO: LATEST NEWS

In Tokyo, at National Archives of Modern Architecture, until September 23, 2019 is available a very interesting exhibition dedicated to Tadao Ando early drawings.
His first architectural materials, the hand-drawn plans and sketches from the 1970s, can be seen.
The projects presented the main masterpieces in Japan, such as the Row House in Sumiyoshi (1976), the Koshino House (1981), Rokko Housing Ⅰ (1983), Time’s Ⅰ (1984), the Kidosaki House (1986), the Church on the Water (1988), and the Church of the Light (1989).

 

Photo credits:
Tadao Ando (header)=Christopher Schriner (Wikipedia)
Church of Light=Bergmann (Wikipedia)