Tadao Ando

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Ando was born in osaka, japan, in 1941. He was the first born of twin boys. from ages 10 to 17 ando spent his time mostly making wood models of ships, airplanes, and moulds, learning the craft from a carpenter whose shop was across the street from his home. 1962-1969, by his early twenties, ando had decided on a self-directed course of architectural study that took him throughout japan to visit temples, shrines, and tea houses, to europe, africa and to the united states. He was studying architecture by going to see actual buildings, and reading books about works of architects such as le corbusier, ludwig mies van der rohe, alvar aalto, frank lloyd wright, and louis kahn before returning to osaka at the age of 28 to open his own studio, 안도타다오 architect & associates. Ando has been a visiting professor at tokyo university, yale, harvard, and columbia.

some architectural projects:

1976 row house (azuma house) sumiyoshi, osaka

1983 rokko housing I, kobe, hyogo

1988 church of the light, osaka

1989 childrens' museum, himeji, hyogo

1991 water temple, awaji island, hyogo

1992 japan pavilion expo '92, seville; naoshima contemporary art museum, kagawa

1991-1993 vitra conference pavilion, weil am rhein; factory building for the company benetton in treviso, italy

1995 meditation space, unesco, paris

1998 toto seminar house, awaji, hyogo; hiroki oda museum, gamo-gun, shiga

1999 rokko housing III, kobe, hyogo

2000 ‘fabrica’ (benetton research center), treviso, italy;awaji island project, awaji, hyogo

2001 theater for giorgio armani, milan, italy

2002: the modern art museum of fort worth, texas

next to construction: museumfondation pinault, paris

interview/ designboom

we met tadao ando in the lobby of 'hotel de milan', in milan, italy
on october 1st, 2001

what is the best moment of the day?

no particular moment.
morning maybe good because of the feeling of beginning.

what kind of music do you listen to at the moment?
mostly classic.

what books do you have on your bedside table?
I am interested in things happening around me, and I need to understand
what's going on in other artistic sectors like music and literature.
I read a lot, but nothing comes to mind at the moment.

do you read architecture and design magazines?
I don't read them. just look at it.

I assume you notice how women dress. do you have any preferences?
I don't look so closely at women's fashion, but from the 20th century on,
people have had the freedom to express themselves and their individualities,
and fashion is one of the most fundamental ways in which they do this,
men and women are equally able to express themselves.

what kind of clothes do you avoid wearing?
nothing in particular.

do you have any pets?
a dog named 'le corbusier'.

where do you work on your designs and projects?
once I traveled a lot, to see the nature, the countryside and the cities,
with a sketchbook... a practice I continue today.
but plans actually I draw in my office.

who would you like to design something for?
I believe that the way people live can be directed a little by architecture.
I would like my architecture to inspire people to use their own resources,
to move into the future.
although now we are more and more governed by the american way
of thinking, money, the economy...
I hope that now people will shift to a more european way (of thinking),
culture, individuality, and that people move towards new goals.
so for me to be able to contribute to this would be great.

do you discuss or exchange ideas with other architects?
not much.

describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it.
walls are the most basic elements of architecture,
and in all my works, light is an important factor.
the primary reason is to create a place for the individual,
a zone for oneself within society.
its very difficult to explain or describe my style, I hope the answer will
come out of the interview.

what project has given you the most satisfaction?
as an architect you have to do your best work for any project,
but for me the most satisfying thing is when architecture can
do something to make people's lives better, to inspire them.

do you try to find meeting points between asian and european cultures?
I don't see them as opposites, the west and the east,
but for example western society seems to be centered on
american culture.
but I think it is important to understand that apart from that
main culture, there are so many other cultures,
and it is necessary to respect them all and their differences.

is there any architect from the past you admire?
of course I learned from history, from the renaissance,
from mies van der rohe, le corbusier, terragni... many architects.

what current architects do you appreciate?
like with the work of the past, as an architect you have to look around
and see what your contemporaries are creating,
for my contemporaries I have respect and interest.

did you always want to be an architect?
right from the beginning yes, but in my life I have done many things,
at one time I was a boxer...
I was never a good student.
I always preferred learning things on my own.

why are you here in milan today?
because giorgio armani asked me to design a theater in milan for him
and today is the inauguration of the building.

on the news broadcast they said that italians are afraid ofunemployment, criminality and pollution.
what are you afraid of regarding the future ?
I'm afraid that people don't want the future to happen.
in order for people to want this, each person has to have goals in their life,
to feel proud.
work is one of the ways of achieving this.
unemployment is dangerous because then people don't use their resources.
each individual has to be able to use their abilities.

출처:http://www.designboom.com

중략

"In all my works, light is an important controlling factor," says Ando. "I create enclosed spaces mainly by means of thick concrete walls. The primary reason is to create a place for the individual, a zone for oneself within society. When the external factors of a city's environment require the wall to be without openings, the interior must be especially full and satisfying." And further on the subject of walls, Ando writes, "At times walls manifest a power that borders on the violent. They have the power to divide space, transfigure place, and create new domains. Walls are the most basic elements of architecture, but they can also be the most enriching."

중략 Ando continues, "Such things as light and wind only have meaning when they are introduced inside a house in a form cut off from the outside world. I create architectural order on the basis of geometry squares, circles, triangles and rectangles. I try to use forces in the area where I am building, to restore the unity between house and nature (light and wind) that was lost in the process of modernizing Japanese houses during the rapid growth of the fifties and sixties."

중략 Koji Taki, one of the Japan's leading writers, thinks of Tadao Ando as "a builder rather than an architect," adding immediately that he does not intend any negative nuance in the term, as he says, "quite the contrary...the appellation 'builder' may be read as a term of praise." He praised Ando's Azuma residence saying, "The value of (this house) as architecture does not necessary come from some stylistic method or abstract concept aimed at making Architecture out of a commission for a house in Osaka; it comes instead from a fundamental way of thinking about building a house for an inhabitant. Ando's approach is to connect the art of building to the art of living."

중략 Ando explains, "The industrial revolution made possible the production of standardized building materials, including concrete, steel and glass, and techniques for using these materials are found in architecture worldwide, thus transcending nationality to produce a Modernism that is international, an open principle. I am applying this vocabulary in an enclosed realm of life styles and regional differences. Many attempts have been made before to link this open vocabulary to the indigenous Japanese tradition of aesthetics and forms. For a number of reasons, including the vastly different life styles of the past to today, most of these attempts failed. My effort is to preserve Japanese residential architecture's intimate connection with nature and the openness to the natural world, what I call enclosed Modern Architecture, a restoration of the unity between house and nature."

중략 One of his most praised projects is the Church of the Light in Osaka. It's simplicity is that it is no more than a concrete box with glazed slits piercing and intersecting the wall behind the altar, allowing sunlight to form a bright cross in the otherwise darkened interior. Ando says of the Church on the Water, "By placing a cross in a body of flowing water, I wanted to express the idea of God as existing in one's heart and mind. I also wanted to create a space where one can sit and meditate."

중략 Asked once to define "architecture" Ando's response was "Chohatsu suru hako," translated as "the box that provokes." Elaborating on that phrase, Ando says, "I have the somewhat arrogant belief that the way people lead lives can be directed, even if by a little, by means of architecture." He has also said on other occasions, "I do not believe architecture should speak too much. It should remain silent and let nature in the guise of sunlight and wind speak."

출처: http://www.pritzkerprize.com

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