Tadao ando

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Casa Azuma, Osaka, Japan, 1976.

Hotel Westin Awaji Island on Awaji Island, Japan.

Art Museum in Hyōgo Prefecture, Kōbe, Japan.

Tadao Ando (安藤忠雄, Tadao Ando^? September 13, 1941) is a Japanese architect. He was born in Osaka and self-taught in architecture, reading and traveling throughout Europe, Africa and the United States.

He has a twin brother, though they were raised separately.

In his youth he was an amateur boxer, later hanging up his gloves to dedicate himself to architecture. Unlike most architects today, Ando did not receive training in architecture schools. Instead, his learning was self-taught, stemming from reading and travel in Africa, Europe, and the United States, as well as a close study of traditional Japanese architecture in Kyoto and Nara. He says:

When I saw the light coming from the Pantheon's oculo in Rome, I knew I wanted to be an architect.

In 1970 he settled in Osaka with "Tadao Ando Architect & Associates & # 34;, a company with which he began his production, first of houses and small buildings, and then with more important buildings. In 1976 he received an award from the Japan Architecture Association for his Azuma House, in Osaka. Public opinion is drawn to Ando from then on, which is consolidated with the construction of his design for the Rokko Housing I housing complex in Kobe. In 1980 he built the Koshino House in the city of Asiya. Among his most important works are the Chapel on the Water (1985) in Tomanu, Hokkaido, the Church of Light, in Ibaraki, Osaka, the Children's Museum (1990) in Himeji.

Considered one of the leaders of critical regionalism, he rejects the indiscriminate use of modern architecture in all cultures of the world. His work combines forms and materials of the modern movement with traditional Japanese aesthetic and spatial principles, especially in the way buildings are integrated into their natural surroundings. One of his characteristics is the use of smooth concrete, with visible formwork marks, to create tectonic wall planes, which serve as light-catching surfaces.

In his designs, Ando rejects the consumerist materialism of today's society, which is visible in many architectural works. This does not prevent him from using the characteristic materials of today's times in his projects, although using them in a way that appears simple and at the same time provides positive sensations, which he achieves, among other resources, through shapes, light or water. To do this, he is generally based on geometric patterns that serve as a guideline for the ordering of his spaces.

On the other hand, Ando studies formulas to solve or improve the existing urban chaos in many Japanese towns. This aspect is approached from a double perspective, one of criticism and the other of sensitivity and understanding.

Contrary to traditional Japanese architectural style, Ando creates interior spaces that are closed, not open:

I believe closed indoor spaces, and not open. I use walls to define the limits of these spaces, and I do it based on human criteria, so that people perceive these spaces as appropriate and comfortable. With walls I also break the usual monotony of, for example, commercial buildings. Finally, the walls separate the exterior, often noisy and chaotic, from the interior, which is designed as a haven of tranquility, isolated from the rest.

Ando has received numerous awards and distinctions, such as the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture, the Praemium Imperiale in 1996, the Kyoto Prize, the Carlsberg Prize and in 1995 the highest international architecture award, the Pritzker Prize, comparable to the Nobel Prize. He has also been invited by two prestigious North American universities to teach classes, at Columbia University as a visiting professor, at the University of Tokyo and at Yale University as a professor.

Thought of Tadao Ando

Tadao Ando's thinking is based on building with simple geometric shapes which, with the use of light and materials, can create transcendental spaces, as he himself says:

I think the architecture becomes interesting when it shows this double character: the maximum simplicity possible and, at the same time, all the complexity that it can give it.

He places a lot of emphasis on incorporating nature into buildings to leave out the chaos of cities and create a space for meditation, serenity and spirituality. His philosophy is aimed at thinking that space can be a source of inspiration and he has managed to capture this in his constructions. He also thinks that the goal of all religions is similar, and that of his is spirituality, therefore he tries to express this spirituality in an architectural way.

Its architecture does not distract at the time of meditation but contributes to introspection.

"Creating architecture is to express representational aspects of the real world, such as nature, history, tradition and society, in a spatial structure, which is an abstact concept, composed by clear transparent logic".

As the quote mentions, his spaces seek to develop expressions, thus creating a dialogue between the user and the architect, reaching spiritual levels. In other words, his spaces are related to humanity.

Limited use of materials, and exposed textures, creates a confusing articulation of the space's function. Therefore, it seeks to emphasize the textures themselves, in order to achieve an interaction with natural elements such as light and wind.

In order to abstract the most fundamental of nature Tadao specially uses the sky, and it plays an important role in his architecture. Well, as he says it, he affects the interior of architecture. Therefore Ando always looks for the sky to enter the spaces in a special way, expressing it in concrete, thus achieving Ando's architecture.

Influences

Tadao Ando has a close relationship with traditional architecture, culture and Japanese history, which is reflected in all his buildings. We also see that he has been influenced by great architects such as Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn and as he himself says:

I am interested in a dialogue with the architecture of the past but it must be filtered by my own vision and experience. I am in debt to Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe, but at the same time I take what they did and interpret it in my way.

Ando's voluntary and purposeful contribution after large-scale calamities has also been notable. After the Kobe earthquake in 1995, Ando played an important role in the rearrangement of the new Hyogo waterfront. After the demolition of the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, Ando proposed the creation of a circular park at Ground Zero that would symbolize the pain that the emptiness left by the Twin Towers meant.

Interior of Omotesando Hills in Christmas season.

After choosing architecture, Ando traveled the world looking for experience of different buildings, however one of the spaces that influenced him the most is the house where he grew up in Osaka's, after the second world war. The winters there were very cold, explaining that you could see the wind race, and the summers were hot, without any breeze. Uncomfortable in summer and winter, however, growing up in a society that he was enraged by the conditions that existed, he decided to improve such conditions. Therefore he considered that house was a fuel for his creative energy.

Representative works

Casa Azuma (Osaka, Japan)
Fundación Pulitzer (San Luis, Missouri)
Rokko Housing (Hyogo, Japan)
Chapel on Mount Rokko (Kobe, Japan)
Garden of Fine Arts (Kioto, Japan)
Suntory Museum (Osaka, Japan)
Museum of Modern Art (Fort Worth, Texas)
Museum of Contemporary Art Naoshima (Kagawa, Japan)
Japan Pavilion, 1992 Exhibition (Seville, Spain)
Meditation Space for UNESCO (Paris, France)
Congress Centre (Nara, Japan)
Vitra Conference Building (Weil am Rhein, Germany)
Koshino House (Ashiya, Japan)
Benetton Research Centre (Treviso, Italy)
Raika Office Building (Osaka, Japan)
Church of Light (Ibaraki, Japan)
Water Church (Hokkaido, Japan)
Times I and II Building (Kioto, Japan)
Bigi Atelier Building (Tokio)
Temple of Water (Tsuna, Japan)
Wood Museum (Hyōgo, Japan)
Suntory Museum (Osaka, Japan)
Omotesando Hills Mall in Omotesando (Tokio, Japan)
Design, a space for design (Tokio, Japan)
Centro Roberto Garza Sada, Escuela de Arte, Arquitectura y Diseño (Monterrey, Mexico)