Tadao Ando (b. Osaka, Japan 1941)
Tadao Ando was born in Osaka, Japan in 1941. Unlike most contemporary architects, Ando did not receive any formal architectural schooling. Instead, he trained himself by reading and traveling extensively through Africa, Europe, and the United States. In 1970 he established Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.
Ando rejects the rampant consumerism visible within much of today's architecture. He responds both sensitively and critically to the chaotic Japanese urban environment, but maintains a connection to the landscape. Although Ando rejects cultural fads, he uses materials and forms to incorporate the materialism of modern society into his architecture. Accordingly, his concrete and glass buildings reflect, the modern progress underway in both Japan and the world.
In opposition to traditional Japanese architecture, Ando creates spaces of enclosure rather than openness. He uses walls to establish a human zone and to counter the monotony of commercial architecture. On the exterior, the wall deflects the surrounding urban chaos, while on the interior it encloses a private space.
Ando developed a radically new architecture characterized by the use of unfinished reinforced concrete structures. Using a geometric simplicity which reveals a subtlety and richness in spatial articulation, Ando has generated an architecture that shares the serenity and clarity that characterize traditional Japanese architecture.
References Kenneth Frampton. Tadao Ando: Buildings, Projects, Writings. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1984. ISBN 0-8478-0547-6. NA1559.1514. Randall J. Van Vynckt. International Dictionary of Architects and Architecture. London: St. James Press, 1993. ISBN 1-55862-087-7. NA40.I48 1993.
Details
Recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1995. Recipient of the AIA Gold Medal, 2002.
Tadao Ando Architect & Associates 5-23 Toyosaki 2-Chome Kita-ku Osaka 531-0072 Japan vox +81 6 6375 1148 fax +81 6 6374 6240
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