Tadao Ando

Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate

1995

Tadao Ando Named 1995 Laureate

Ando's Reaction

Citation from the Jury

1995 Prize Ceremony at the

Grand Trianon & Chateau de Versailles

...about Tadao Ando, a brief biography

Photo Gallery

Proceedings at the Versailles Ceremony

Thoughts on Tadao Ando by Kenneth Frampton

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Tadao Ando Named 1995 Laureate

Tadao Ando, a 53 year old architect who lives and works in Osaka, Japan,was named the eighteenth Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. In making the announcement, Jay A. Pritzker, president of The Hyatt Foundation, which established the award in 1979, quoted from the jury's citation which describes Ando's architecture as "an assemblage of artistically composed surprises in space and form . . . that both serve and inspire. . . with never a predictable moment as one moves throughout his buildings.

"Ando is the third Japanese architect to be selected for his profession's highest honor which carries a $100,000 grant. The formal presentation was made on May 22 in the Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles, France.

Pritzker affirmed the jury's choice, saying, "Ando conceives his projects as places of habitation not as abstract designs in a landscape. It is not surprising that he is often referred to by his professional peers and critics as being as much a builder as an architect. That emphasizes how important he considers craftsmanship in accomplishing his designs. He requires absolute precision in the making and casting of his concrete forms to achieve the smooth, clean and perfect concrete for his structures."

Even though nearly all of his projects make use of cement as the primary building material, he was a carpenter's apprentice for short time where he learned the craftsmanship of traditional Japanese wooden construction. In fact, one of his most widely known structures was built almost entirely of wood, the Japanese Pavilion for Expo '92 in Spain.

Most of Ando's projects have been in Japan, concentrated mainly in the Osaka area where he was born, raised and currently lives and works. In addition to a number of inspiring religious structures, he has designed museums, commercial buildings that include offices, factories and shopping centers. His professional career began, however, with residential projects.

One of his first commissions was for a small row house in 1977 in his native Osaka, called Azuma House, which received the top prize of the Architectural Institute of Japan in 1979. He has designed a number of significant homes -- for single and multiple families -- sometimes for mixed commercial/residential use, as well as apartment complexes.

Bill Lacy, executive director for the international panel of jurors that elects the Laureate each year, quoted further from the formal citation from the jury which states, "Ando has accomplished an extraordinary body of work. His powerful inner vision ignores whatever movements, schools or styles that might be current, creating buildings with form and composition related to the kind of life that will be lived there.

Lacy, who is an architect himself and president of the State University of New York at Purchase, elaborated, "A key part of Ando's architectural philosophy is the creation of boundaries within which he can create introspective domains, encapsulating space where people can interrelate to light and shadow, wind and water, away from the surrounding urban chaos.

The selection of Ando marks the third Pritzker Laureate from Japan. KenzoTange was the first in 1987 and Fumihiko Maki in 1993 confirming that country's indelible mark on twentieth century modernist architecture that was previously almost exclusively American and European mainstream."

As a self-taught architect, with no architectural degree or even training with a master architect, Ando attributes his development to extensive reading and a number of study trips to Europe and the United States to see actual buildings from history. He kept detailed sketch books of all his travels which he still does to this day.

One of his most important housing projects is called Rokko Housing, which was accomplished in two phases the first has twenty units each with a terrace but differing in size and layout, the second, comprising 50 units, was completed in 1993. While the units appear to be uniform on the outside, each one has a unique interior. Built of reinforced concrete with a rigid frame, the units are embedded in the side of sixty degree sloping hillside with a panoramic view of Osaka Bay, and provide such amenities as a swimming pool and a rooftop plaza. Ando received Japan's Cultural Design Prize in 1983 for this project.

Ando's other residential projects include the three-story Ishihara House in Osaka, another concrete bearing wall structure with a unique central court surrounded by a glass block membrane. Another three-story residence is the Horiuchi House which uses a glass block wall as a freestanding screen between the home and street traffic.

He continues to build residences, always with a sense of sanctuary, but he has broadened his palette to include other types of structures. Some of these new directions include the Church of Light and the Church on the Water for Christian worshipers, and the striking Buddhist Water Temple, entered through a staircase piercing a lotus pond. The Children's Museum at Hyogo and the Forest of Tombs Museum at Kumamoto are remarkable examples of his use of stairs and underground space .

In 1993, Ando received the Japan Art Academy Prize; in 1992, the Carlsberg Architectural Prize in Denmark, adding to the honors already received, including the French Academy of Architecture's Gold Medal in 1989; the Alvar Aalto Medal in 1985; the Mainichi Art Prize in 1987 for the Chapel on Mt. Rokko; the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, and the Japanese Ministry of Education's prize to encourage new talent in the fine arts in 1986. Ando is an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the American Institute of Architects, the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters.

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Ando's Reaction To Being Named

1995 Laureate

Following is a translation of Ando's reaction when notified that he had won the prize.

I am bewildered by the news that I have been selected as a recipient of the 1995 Pritzker Architecture Prize. The faces of previous prize winners, beginning with Philip Johnson, keep reappearing in my mind's eye, and I cannot help but wonder about my future works. Since for me, making architecture is the same as thinking, even more than before, I will have to pose contemporary questions at the same time as reflecting upon history and speculating into the future. It is a time for me to brace my own spirit so that I can actualize increasingly responsible building projects. In the world of rapidly transforming values, my hope is to help promote both an architecture and a city which embrace humanity with enduring care and love.

In the early morning of January 17, 1995, we were struck by a horrible earthquake and the consequent disasters. It was painful for us to see the devastation of the places close to our heart. In spite of this disaster, it is our small comfort to find that none of the buildings designed by Tadao Ando located in Kobe and in the area close the fault zone were damaged. They are all safe. We have over 30 buildings, including the Water Temple in Awajishima Island (the center of the fault zone), Rokko Housing, I and II, and a number of private houses and school facilities in the Hansin area. These buildings all survived and stand firmly.

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Citation from the Jury

Tadao Ando is that rare architect who combines artistic and intellectual sensitivity in a single individual capable of producing buildings, large and small, that both serve and inspire . His powerful inner vision, ignores whatever movements, schools or styles that might be current, creating buildings with form and composition related to the kind of life that will be lived there.

At an age when most architects are beginning to do their first serious works, Ando has accomplished an extraordinary body of work, primarily in his native Japan, that already sets him apart. Working with smooth-as-silk concrete, Ando creates spaces using walls which he defines as the most basic element of architecture, but also the most enriching.

In spite of his consistent use of materials and the elements of pillar, wall, and vault, his different combinations of these elements always prove exciting and dynamic. His design concepts and materials have linked international Modernism to the Japanese tradition of aesthetics. His dedication and understanding of the importance of craftsmanship have earned him the appellation of builder as well as architect.

He is accomplishing his self-imposed mission to restore the unity between house and nature. Using the most basic geometric forms, he creates microcosms for the individual with ever changing patterns of light. But far more than achieving some abstract design concept, his architecture is a reflection of a fundamental process of building something for habitation.

Ando's architecture is an assemblage of artistically composed surprises in space and form. There is never a predictable moment as one moves through his buildings. He refuses to be bound by convention. Originality is his medium and his personal view of the world is his source of inspiration.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize honors Tadao Ando not only for works completed, but also for future projects that when realized, will most certainly further enrich the art of architecture.

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1995 Prize Ceremony at the Grand Trianon &

Chateau de Versailles

On May 22, 1995, the Grand Trianon Palace and Chateau of Versailles in France welcomed guests from around the world for the ceremony presenting The Pritzker Architecture Prize to Tadao Ando of Japan. The ceremonies have been held all over the world since The Hyatt Foundation established the award in 1979. The first two were held in Washington, D.C. at Dumbarton Oaks. Other venues in the United States have been the National Gallery of Art and the National Building Museum in that city; The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; in Southern California at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens; in Chicago at The Art Institute as well as that city's new Harold Washington Library Center; in Ft. Worth at the Kimbell Art Museum, and in Columbus, Indiana, the mid-western community that boasts the greatest concentration of buildings by architects of world renown. International venues have been The Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Italy; Goldsmith's Hall in London, England; Todai-ji Buddhist Temple in Nara, Japan; Prague Castle in the Czech Republic and Palacio de Iturbide in Mexico City.

Versailles is world famous as France's most lavish palace and gardens, possibly the greatest monument to absolute monarchy and the culmination of French Classicism. In the twentieth century, it was the site of the signing of a treaty in 1919 ending the first world war.

Originally, Louis Xlll built a hunting lodge on the site in 1624. Over most of the rest of that century, new structures were built and added to by Louis XIV, who in 1682 made it not only the court residence, but also the seat of government. In fact, Versailles was the capital of France for nearly a century. It was Louis XIV who had the small palace of stone and pink marble, known as the Grand Trianon, built in 1687 as a less formal retreat. Louis XV was still making additions to the Chateau in 1770 when he had Jacques Gabriel design the opera house.

The architects of the Sun King were Louis Le Vau in the early years, and then Jules Hardouin-Mansart, who added the enormous north and south wings, the Chapel and the famous Hall of Mirrors. Charles Le Brun supervised the decoration, and the landscaping was planned by Le Notre, who also designed the Tuileries Gardens.

The presentation of the Pritzker Architecture Prize was made by Jay A. Pritzker, president of the Hyatt Foundation, in the Grand Trianon which was being used for the occasion by special authorization of the President of French Republic. It is usually reserved for official French government functions.

Following the presentation, ceremony guests continued on to the south wing of the Chateau of Versailles for a formal dinner served in the Hall of Battles. The Hall of Battles, some 390 feet long by 43 feet wide, and two stories tall, was built by Louis Philippe and contains 33 large paintings of historic scenes depicting French victories, including the earliest by Clovis in 496 AD to the 1809 victory of Napoleon at Wagram.

According to J. Carter Brown, the jury chairman of the Pritzker Prize and director emeritus of the National Gallery of Art, "By moving the ceremony around the world to venues with architectural significance, the aims of the Pritzker Prize are served beyond the primary purpose of singling out one architect each year for the Pritzker honor. We are paying homage to architects and builders from history. It helps focus the public's awareness on good architecture and what it can mean to people's lives the underlying goal of the prize. " He recalled the words of the late Lord Clark of Saltwood, who, when he was one of the founding jurors of the Pritzker Prize, said of the award: " . . .it will focus public attention on a branch of human endeavor by which our civilization will be judged in the future." Lord Clark, an art historian perhaps best known for his television series and book, Civilisation said further: "A great historical episode can exist in our imaginations almost entirely in the form of architecture. Very few of us have read the texts of early Egyptian literature. Yet we feel we know those infinitely remote people almost as well as our immediate ancestors, chiefly because of their sculpture and architecture."

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