Projects

Koshino House and Addition, Ashiya, Japan Design: 1979-80
Construction: 1980-81
Addition Design: 1983
Addition Construction: 1983-84 Two different-sized concrete boxes, arranged in parallel to accommodate existing trees, are half-buried in the verdant slope of a national park. An underground corridor links the two boxes, which flank a courtyard. The smoothly finished, stepped courtyard symbolizes the natural contour of the site. Slits cut through the walls facing the courtyard are intended to generate dynamic plays of light and shadow on the interior spaces. An atelier that was added four years after the main residence was built is buried in the ground at the upper part of the slope. The addition is separated from the older building by a lawn. A curved wall defines its territory. Cut into that wall is a slit that not only provides light at the top, but it also creates complex patterns of intersecting curves along the wall. By introducing the curved wall and curved intersections of light to the previously rectilinear scheme, Ando's new composition helps create a more harmonious landscape.

Church on the Water, Tomamu, Hokkaido, Japan Design: 1985-88
Construction: 1988 The setting for this chapel is a plateau in the mountains on the island of Hokkaido, the coldest region in Japan. The entire area is blanketed with greenery from spring to summer, but in winter it becomes an unbroken expanse of white. Erected on the shore of an artificial pond, the chapel consists of two large and small overlapping squares. Entry to the chapel involves following the circuitous route along a freestanding L-shaped wall that wraps around the back of the building and one side of the pond. A murmur of water accompanies the visitor's progress, but the source of the sound remains hidden, heightening expectations, until the wide expanse of the pond is revealed on the other side of the wall. There the visitor makes a 180-degree turn to climb the gentle slope before entering a light-filled vestibule that is enclosed with glass. The placid expanse of the pond and the large cross rising from its water are visible through the glass altar wall, which can slide open, exposing the church to the pond and the wilderness just beyond it. 

Church of the Light, Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan Design: 1987-88
Construction: 1988-89 Located in a quiet residential suburb of Osaka, this church derives its orientation from the direction of the sun. It consists of a rectangular volume sliced through at a fifteen-degree angle by a freestanding concrete wall that separates the entrance from the chapel. This division creates a threshold between the exterior and the sacred interior spaces. The floor and pews are made of rough scaffolding planks, which emphasize the humble character of the space. Ando likes to use materials of substance for the details of buildings because the tactile experience enhances our perception of the architecture. Intense light penetrates the profound darkness of this box through a cross that is cut out of the altar wall. As the only element of nature in this building, the light is rendered in exceedingly abstract form. The austere architecture appears to become purer in response to such an abstraction. Ando intended the linear pattern formed on the floor by the cross on the wall to express the purity that exists in the relationship between individuals and nature. 

Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Naoshima, Japan Design: 1988-90
Construction: 1990-92 Art Museum Annex
Design: 1993-94
Construction: 1994-95 Minami-Dera (Art House Project)
Design: 1998
Construction: 1999 Naoshima is a small island in the Inland Sea of Japan. The site selected for the contemporary art museum is on the bluff of a narrow cape at the island's southern tip and overlooks the quiet surf below; in fact, the museum's design is oriented to receive visitors who arrive by ship. A stepped plaza that functions as the museum's entrance also houses an underground annex and further doubles as a stage for outdoor performances. It is only after climbing the plaza steps that the stone rubble walls of the main museum come into sight. Since the museum is located in a national park of spectacular beauty, more than half of the building's volume was set underground so as not to intrude on the scenic surroundings. After visitors ascend the slope and pass through the main building's entrance, they enter the large underground art gallery, which is two levels high. A hotel building, gallery, and stepped terrace all open towards the ocean, whose tranquil presence is drawn into the interior spaces. Like outdoor sculpture in a museum compound, this architecture functions as an earthwork to produce a new landscape amid the vastness of nature. Further up the slope behind the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum is the Annex, the second phase of Ando's project at Naoshima. Currently, the Annex functions primarily as a luxury hotel, but Ando hopes that it will eventually become an exhibition space. Like the main complex, the Annex is partially buried into the hillside and integrated within the surrounding landscape. It can be reached by a cable car or by "processional" walking paths which enable the visitor to sustain a strong connection to the abundant nature and spectacular scenery. The Annex is an elliptical building, framed by rectilinear outer walls made of the same stones that were used on the earlier buildings. The focus of the Annex is its central open-air "courtyard"— an elliptical pool that was conceived as a contemplative water sculpture. A patio surrounding the pool serves as an outdoor gallery and entryway to the guest rooms, each with a private view of the sea. The entrance to the Annex is decorated with a cascade of water that appears to flow to the ocean. The entire hillside serves as the Annex garden and together they offer an intimate encounter with nature, art, and solitude. On another part of Naoshima is the Art House Project, developed under the same managing authority as the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum. The purpose of the Art House Project is to preserve and restore the region's old traditional private houses that could then serve as galleries for permanent exhibitions of contemporary art. This current project involved designing a special space for an installation of light by the American artist James Turrell. Ando's approach involved constructing a wooden building that would be called Minami-Dera, the name of the temple that formerly stood on the site. Tucked within a residential area, the building is a modest structure made with the same type of charred cedar planks found on traditional-style houses in the surrounding neighborhood. The vertical timbers arranged at narrow intervals resemble a dense forest, helping to harmonize the new Minami-Dera with its location and to revitalize this historical site. The interior is completely shielded from the natural sunlight so, once inside, visitors are enveloped by silence and total darkness. As their eyes adjust to the darkness, they encounter Backside of the Moon, one of Turrell's expressions of light. 

FABRICA (Benetton Communications Research Center), Treviso, Italy Design: 1992-95
Construction: 1993-2000 The restoration of a seventeenth-century Palladian villa was the starting point for FABRICA, a research center for students from all over the world who come to work in the applied arts of design, photography, graphic art, media, and textiles. Drawn to the advantages of working with the pastoral scenery of Treviso, a city not far from Venice in northern Italy, Ando proposed a design that would rejuvenate the old villa's charm and vitality, while eliciting a harmonious relationship between the old and the new. The greater portion of the new structure has been placed below ground, with a stepped configuration of plazas leading down to a double-height sunken oval court. A new colonnaded gallery penetrates the old villa and links it to the new facilities. New study rooms, studio, workshops, art gallery, auditorium, film theater, and library are all open to the plazas, which provide places for social exchange and creative work. 

Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis, Missouri Design: 1992-97
Construction: 1997-2001 Situated in a newly revitalized cultural district of St. Louis, this building maintains the scale of residential architecture while creating a special gallery space for modern and contemporary art. The building consists of two parallel boxes, equal in width but slightly varied in length. A reflecting pool lies between the two long rectangular volumes, creating an element of tranquility. The geometric scheme is of the utmost simplicity, but the right proportions and appropriate openings create a stimulating environment. The taller of the two volumes contains the main gallery, whose double height is equal to its width. The height of the second is kept to a single story under a long roof garden. The difference in the length of the two volumes results in a humble entrance foyer, while the variation in the height results in a two-story reception area. From the first floor the reception area looks out to the water court and from the second floor it looks out on the greenery of the roof garden. Even in a raw, urban site, Ando is able to make us feel the presence of nature. The natural light reflected from the pool heightens our sensitivity to the variation of sunlight, cloud movements, and the changes of seasons. Ando has created a space not only for the contemplation of art but also for the cultivation of our spirit.

Light is the origin of all beings. Light gives, with each moment, new being and new interrelationships to things, and architecture condenses light to its most concise being. The creation of space in architecture is simply the condensation and purification of the power of light.

— Tardo Ando