The star of architecture Tadao Andô
Portrait de l'architecte japonais Tadao Andō, pris lors de l’inauguration de la salle d'exposition artistique de Langen, en Allemagne, durant l'été 2004.
Christopher Schriner - Wikimédia
Church of the Light in Ibaraki
Wikimédia
Le musée Lee U-Fan, résultat d'une collaboration entre l'artiste sud-coréen et Tadao Ando
Wikimédia
The Iwaki Illustrated Book Library
http://www.iwaki-k.ac.jp
The Benesse House Oval, by Tadao Ando
Wikimédia
The impressive library of writer Shiba Ryotaro
Forgemind ArchiMedia
Tadao Andô, itinerary of a self-taught architect
From the boxing ring to the most prestigious international architecture prize, this is the extraordinary journey of the Japanese architect, Tadao Ando, who accounts for more than 300 architectural achievements around the world since his beginnings in Osaka in 1969.
An atypical course
Tadao Ando is entirely self-taught. The former professional boxer without any architectural diploma nevertheless belongs today to the very elite cast of "starchitectes".
Born, 1941 in Osaka, Ando was raised by his grandmother. As a teenager, he frequented artisan workshops (joiners, carpenters, ironworkers and glassmakers) on a daily basis; which reveal in him a certain taste for architecture and creation. He also enjoys wandering the streets of Osaka in search of old buildings to study. Thus begins his informal apprenticeship in architecture.
After hanging up his boxing gloves, around the age of 24, he worked in furniture design, interior architecture and house renovations . He buys second-hand architectural manuals in which he discovers the works of Le Corbusier. Particularly impressed by the work of the French architect, he undertakes a long artistic and educational journey, he says: "to visit the buildings which inspire", to experience their spaces and remember them with my body ". Between 1962 and 1969, he traveled the world to see great architectural masterpieces to perfect his self-learning. It is also the occasion for him to appreciate the achievements of Le Corbusier in Paris and Marseilles and the Cistercian abbeys of the south of France.
International recognition
On his return to Osaka in 1969, he founded his agency and began his work by building small detached houses in the early 1970s.
One of his first achievements, the Azuma house in Sumiyoshi district, will make him the architect to follow. Entirely made of concrete, it occupies a tiny space between traditional-style houses. Ando plays with the narrowness of the land by imagining a house with a blind facade with an interior courtyard space that allows its occupants to escape the urban madness. Completed in 1976, it will be crowned with the Prize of the Institute of Architecture of Japan in 1979. Tadao Ando acquired the property in 1982 to base the headquarters of his architectural firm.
The 1990s are synonymous with consecration. He created the Japanese pavilion for the Seville Universal Exhibition in 1992; the most noticed and visited the pavilion. The largest museums in the world are already devoting major retrospectives to him: the MOMA in New York in 1991 and the Center Georges Pompidou in 1993. After receiving the very prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1995, he was appointed full professor at the University of Tokyo; the self-taught architect!
Azuma House (1976), Osaka
Wikimedia
Quel est le style de Tadao Ando ?
- Des formes géométriques simples
Utilisant un vocabulaire minimal de forme (cercle, carré, rectangle…) ainsi qu’une palette de matériaux réduite, son style est immédiatement reconnaissable. Par l’économie de moyens et le dépouillement, Ando s’inscrit dans une certaine tradition japonaise tout en s’inspirant également des styles occidentaux de Le Corbusier, du Bauhaus et de l'architecte américain Louis Kahn.
- Un béton lisse
Ando a une prédilection pour le béton dont l’aspect change avec le temps et capte la lumière. Apportant une attention toute particulière aux détails, il a poussé jusqu’à l’extrême sa recherche de raffinement en développant sa propre formule de béton. Bien que laissé brut, son béton est lisse et délicat, ressemblant à un béton brossé ou verni au pinceau.
- L’architecture comme lieu de refuge
Les bâtiments de Tadao Ando sont pensés comme des havres de paix, des huis clos contre le chaos urbain. L’espace bâti est une architecture-refuge isolant de l’espace public urbain. C’est pourquoi bon nombre de ses habitations s’organisent autour d’une cour intérieure laissant pénétrer la lumière et créant un cocon protecteur.
- L’intégration des éléments naturels (eau, lumière)
Ando utilise les éléments naturels comme des éléments architecturaux à part entière. Dans son Église de la Lumière bâtie en 1989 à Ibaraki où le soleil pénètre dans l’édifice grâce à une ouverture en forme de croix, c’est bel et bien la lumière qui matérialise la qualité sacrée du lieu. Un exemple remarquable d’harmonie entre un élément naturel et l’architecture en béton.
Bourse du Commerce à Paris, designée par Tadao Ando
© Marsumilae, Unsplash
L'église de la lumière à Ibaraki par Tadao Ando
© Bergmann, wikimedias (CC 3.0)
In 1989, Soichiro Fukutake, president of the Benesse company and initiator of this museum island, asked Ando for the construction of the Benesse House . This hotel-museum is an unparalleled site offering spectacular views of the sea and the surrounding volcanic islands. Ando, then built the hotel annex, a huge oval; a perfect fusion of nature and its architecture. He also created the Minamidera, a wooden building housing a work by American artist James Turell.
In the 2000s, he designed two other museums on the island; the Chichu Art Museum and the Lee U-fan Museum . The creation of his own museum on Naoshima is an additional mark of the architect's intimate relationship with the place: he is the man of Naoshima.
En 1989, Sôichirô Fukutake, président de la société Benesse et initiateur de cette île-musée, sollicite Ando pour la construction du Benesse House. Cet hôtel-musée est un site sans pareil offrant une vue spectaculaire sur la mer et les îles volcaniques alentours.
Dans les années 2000, il conçoit deux autres musées sur l’île : le musée d’art Chichu et le musée Lee U-fan. La réalisation de son propre musée sur Naoshima, le Ando Museum est une marque supplémentaire de sa relation intime avec le lieu : il est l’architecte de Naoshima. En 2025, il réalise le Naoshima New Museum of Art, qui met en valeur cette fois-ci des artistes contemporains asiatiques.
Découvrez notre circuit Art & Architecture en mer intérieure !
Parc de la Benesse House, designé par Tadao Ando à Naoshima
© 663highland, wikimedias
Benesse House Museum designé par Tadao Ando, Naoshima
© 663highland, wikimedias
Entrée du musée Chichu designé par Tadao Ando à Naoshima
© 663highland, wikimedias
The essential works of Tadao Ando in Japan
Among 300 architectural achievements spread over some fifty countries, it is very difficult to retain only a few. However, Japan Experience offers a small selection of the master's works in the archipelago. A choice guided by essential criteria; that accessibility to the public in order to be able to discover these places from every angle!
- The Church of Light in Ibaraki. Address: 4 Chome-3-50 Kitakasugaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0048
- The Church on the Water. Address: Nakatomamu, Shimukappu, Yufutsu District, Hokkaido 079-2204, Japan
- The Shiba Ryotaro Museum. Address: 3 Chome-11-18 Shimokosaka, Higashiosaka, Osaka 577-0803.
- The Iwaki Illustrated Book Museum. Address: Katsutsuo-209-17 Tairatoyoma, Iwaki, Fukushima 970-0224.
- Awaji-Yumebutai. Address: Awaji, Hyogo, Japan
- Naoshima Island
- The Omotesando Hills shopping complex in the Omotesando district . Address: 4 Chome-12-10 Jingumae, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0001
- Makomanai Takino cemetery and its Buddha hill . Address: 2 Takino, Minami Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido 005-0862
- 21_21 Design Sight . Address: 9-7-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
- The Azuma house: this is not a public place since it has been the seat of the architect's agency since 1982, but worth a mention. It is and will remain the iconic house of the master; the one who started it all and where every project begins. Address: 2 Chome-13 Sumiyoshi, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka
- Dans le Kansai
Yumebutai, île d’Awaji – Station Kokudo Yumebutai mae
Temple de l’eau Honpukuji, île d’Awaji – Station Kokudo Yumebutai mae
Découvrez notre excursion à Awaji ⇒ Awaji: où le Zen rencontre l'architecture
Église de la lumière d’Ibaraki, Osaka – Station Handaibyoin
Azuma House, Osaka – Station Sumiyoshi
La forêt des livres pour enfants de Nakanoshima, Osaka – Station Yodoyabashi
Rokko Housing, Kobe – Station Rokko
Musée Préfectoral d’art de Hyogo, Kobe – Station Iwaya
Musée préfectoral de Hyogo, Kobe
© Ueruko, Unsplash
Yumebutai sur l'île d'Awaji
© 663highland, wikimedias (CC 2.5)
Rokko Housing, à Kobe
© Raphael Azevedo Franca, wikimedias
- A Hokkaido
Église sur l’Eau – Nakatomamu, Hokkaido – Station Tomamu
La Colline du Bouddha et Cimetière de Makomanai Takino, Sapporo, Hokkaido – Arrêt 滝野峠 Takino Toge (Col de Takino)
Kitakaro Sapporo Honkan Cafe, Sapporo – Station Sapporo
