Tadao Ando (安藤忠雄 Andō Tadao, born September 13, 1941 in Osaka, Japan) is a Japanese architect whose approach to architecture is sometimes categorised as Critical Regionalism. Ando has led a storied life, working as truck driver and boxer before settling on the profession of architecture without having taken formal training. He works primarily in concrete and is renowned for an exemplary craftsmanship which invokes a Japanese sense of materiality, junction and spatial narrative through the pared aesthetics of international modernism.

In 1969, he established the firm Tadao Ando Architects & Associates .

In 1995, Ando won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize medallion. He donated the $100,000 prize money to the orphans of the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Buildings and works

Completed

• Row House (Azuma House), Sumiyoshi, Osaka prefecture, Japan, 1976
• Rokko Housing One, Rokko , Kobe prefecture , Japan, 1983
• Festival, Naha, Okinawa prefecture, Japan, 1984
• Church on the Water, Tomamu, Hokkaido prefecture, Japan, 1988
• Children's Museum, Himeji, Hyogo prefecture, Japan, 1989
• Church of the Light, Ibaraki, Osaka prefecture, Japan, 1989 [1] [2]
• Water Temple, Awaji Island, Hyogo prefecture, Japan, 1991 [3]
• Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Naoshima, Kagawa prefecture, Japan, 1992 [4] [5]
• Japanese Pavilion for Expo 92, Seville, Spain, 1992
• Rokko Housing Two, Rokko, Kobe, Japan, 1993
• Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, Saint Louis, Missouri, 2001 [6]
• Ryotaro Shiba Memorial Museum, Higashiosaka, Osaka prefecture, Japan, 2001
• Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, 2002 [7]

In progress

• Jingumae 4-Chome Project, Tokyo, Japan (expected completion in January 2006) [8]
• House, stable, and mausoleum for former fashion designer Tom Ford, near Santa Fe, New Mexico

Awards

• Annual Prize (Row House, Sumiyoshi), Architectural Institue of Japan , 1979
• Cultural Design Prize (Rokko Housing One and Two), Japan, 1983
• Alvar Aalto Medal, The Finnish Association of Architects , 1985
• Gold Medal of Architecture, French Academy of Architecture , 1989
• Carlsberg Architectural Prize, Denmark, 1992
• Japan Art Academy Prize, Japan, 1993
• Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1995
• Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France, 1995
• Praemium Imperiale First “FRATE SOLE” Award in Architecture, Japan Art Association, 1996
• Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France, 1997
• Royal Gold Medal, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), 1997
• AIA Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects (AIA), 2002

References

• Francesco Dal Co. Tadao Ando: Complete Works. Phaidon Press, 1997. ISBN 0714837172
• Kenneth Frampton. Tadao Ando: Buildings, Projects, Writings. Rizzoli International Publications, 1984. ISBN 0847805476
• Randall J. Van Vynckt. International Dictionary of Architects and Architecture. St. James Press, 1993. ISBN 1558620877

External links

• Tadao Ando website
• Tadao Ando unofficial website
• Tadao Ando page at greatbuildingsonline.com
• Tadao Ando page at archINFORM