Tadao Ando

TADAO ANDO (Osaka, 1941).
"Concept sketch for the time's II project", 1986.
Charcoal and colored pencil on paper.
Signed.
Measurements: 21.5 x 30.5 cm; 33 x 43 cm (frame).

Tadao Ando is a self-taught architect strongly influenced by the work of Le Corbusier, formed mainly in his travels in the U.S., Europe and Africa between 1962 and 1969. During his travels he visited buildings by Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn, something that clearly influenced the forms and materials of his buildings. In 1968 he returned to his country and founded Tadao Ando Architects & Associates in Osaka. His achievements as an architect include winning the 1995 Pritzker Architecture Prize from the Hyatt Foundation. His early works show an incipient postmodern style, although clearly adapted to Japanese customs. In 1976 he completed his first work Azuma House, Tadao Ando divides the house into two volumes, one private and one common, between them a courtyard is intended for the "play of wind and light". The presence of natural elements in his works will accompany him throughout his career. During the eighties, Tadao Ando leapt onto the international scene as the leading exponent of the new Japanese architecture. From these years we highlight the Rokko Housing development (1983-1993) with its Chapel on Mount Rokko (1986), in these buildings the influence of Le Corbusier in Tadao Ando is evident in the use of concrete as the main material, although the individualized treatment of light gives his works a personal stamp. In 1992 he designed the Japanese Pavilion for Expo'92 in Seville. A large ephemeral wooden structure. The Museum of the Forest of Tombs (1992) is a space full of symbolism in which Tadao Ando abandons straight lines, but not the coldness of concrete. Among Ando's outstanding works at the turn of the century are the Awaji Yumebutai in Hyogo (1997) and the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas (2000). Among his most recent works are ambitious projects such as the Poly Theater in Shanghai, a building consisting of a reinforced concrete box, enveloped by a glazed lattice skin, and perforated by steel tunnels lined with aluminum panels, which have a wood-like finish. A building that preserves the essence of Tadao Ando's works, but developed with more modern techniques.