Art history about TADAO ANDO

Art History of Tadao Ando Name: Institution: Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Abstract PAGEREF _Toc309741710 \h 1Introduction: Biography of the Artists PAGEREF _Toc309741711 \h 1Tadao`s Architectural Impression PAGEREF _Toc309741712 \h 2References PAGEREF _Toc309741713 \h 7Appendices PAGEREF _Toc309741714 \h 8Appendix 1: Row House, Sumiyoshi House 1975. PAGEREF _Toc309741715 \h 8Appendix 2: Rokko House I. 1981 PAGEREF _Toc309741716 \h 8Appendix 3: Church of Light PAGEREF _Toc309741717 \h 9Appendix 4: Church by water PAGEREF _Toc309741718 \h 9Appendix 5: Drawing of Modern art museum, Fort Worth PAGEREF _Toc309741719 \h 10 Abstract Tadao Ando is a Japanese architect and designer who has come of age, after learning design from observation and repeated sketching. The architect career has progressed from the simple geometrical buildings, to modern artistic buildings. This progress has seen remarkable adaptations of the themes of light, water and nature with modern and traditional Japanese designs. The architect has managed to defined his style apart from his mentors Le Corbusier, Lloyd Wright, to reveal his inner expression of architecture. His style makes use of water, light and geometry elements to produce rhythm in density, volume and light as seen in the buildings Row house or Sumiyoshi, Chapel of light, Rokko housing I, Church by the Water and Fort Worth`s Museum for modern art. Keywords: Tadao Ando, Rokko housing I, Church by the Water and Fort, water element, light element. Introduction: Biography of the Artists The artist was born in Osaka, Japan in the year 1941. Tadao was raised by his grandmother in this city, and spent most of his time outdoors after the war. As a teenager, between the ages of 10 and 17, Tadao worked in a local carpentry shop, where he learnt the skills of manipulating wood to create beautiful furniture, and several wooden ships and airplane pieces (Bell, 2005). These skills were gained by the artists from out of class work, since Tadao preferred working outside, rather than class work, since he did not consider himself a scholar. Upon reaching 18, the artists visited temples, Japanese tea houses, shrines in Nara and Kyoto where he was exposed to different traditional Japanese architecture (Bell, 2005). Therefore, his architectural classes began with his outdoor and exploratory activities within his locality. His interest in architecture grew at this point, for it also drove him to read books on architectural buildings he was visiting. Architectural interest was also heightened by his the first book he bought the sketches of Le Corbusier. To teach himself, Tadao retraced Le Corbusier sketches repeatedly till the pages of the book turned black (Bell, 2005). Tadao is the model of a self made architect who taught himself from the works of Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies, Louis Kahn and Lloyd Wright (Bell, 2005). Later in the late 1960s, Tadao took trips to America, Europe and Africa, as he began to create his own ideas on architectural designs before he founded his own architectural association in 1969. This research shall look in depth at the architecture`s work and development over time. To understand the development of his career, the research shall look at three masterpieces designed by the artist during his profession. In addition, the research paper shall look at the detailed themes depicted by each of these buildings in order to reveal the level of development. Tadao`s Architectural Impression The first impression, i had after viewing some of Tadao`s architectural designs was the materiality aspect. Looking at his buildings reveals Tadao`s love for large powerful walls which set a limit on the buildings. Secondly, I had the impression that his technique had tactility, since though the walls were hard, they had a soft touch, allowed light and wind to flow in and were still. The third impression, of his designs was the emptiness of the buildings, for it is only light that surrounded an occupant in his buildings. Overall, apart from these impressions, there are specific aspects of his designs that show the achievement or development of Tadao`s techniques over the years. These will be looked at by analysing the architect`s first building, Sumiyoshi built in 1975, and comparing it with two of his modern designs. The first building Tadao realised was in Osaka in 1975, with the Row House, as seen in appendix 1. This first house is simply a block building, between narrow streets of row houses. The house is noticeable since it has a blank façade with only a doorway. The space of this house is divided into equal rectangles, with the central section taking an atrium shape. The living room is located at the ground level near the doorway with the bedroom above it. The kitchen and bathroom are located below, in the last rectangle space with a master bedroom above them. Like the architecture, this house represents his theme of emptiness and loneliness, for the walls are bare and have large rectangle empty walls. The house also reflects the architects desire to have simple form, for he tries to dialogue with the architectural styles of the past. However, simplicity is further realised in these pieces since he filters out conversations with his own experience. Ideally, the architect designs are very independent of all movements or schools since he responds solely to his inner vision. The main elements at play for his designs and subsequent works are walls, wind and light which are composed in juxtaposition. The use of geometric walls with thick concrete is not only seen in ‘Sumiyoshi` but also in the subsequent works like the 1980s Rokko houseappendix 2. This building is an apartment complex with 18`by18`, modular units. These units ascend the hill and are connected with a central public space and staircase. One difference with the previous Sumiyoshi house was the fact that each unit in Rokko house had a different identity as compared to the uniformity of the rectangular rooms in Sumiyoshi. The uniqueness of these units represents one of the most important architectural designs by Tadao.[Bell, C. (2005). Tadao Ando Architect of Light. Modern Design and architectureRokko Housing in Kobe, Japan (1981-1983 and 1985-1989)The complex is built on a very steep hill that overlooks Kobe city. Tadao created the apartment complex with a grid made up of 5,2 meter cubes that were either closed and open. The complex is unique since each of the housing units has a different design though the outside or the block has a uniform design, and are all united by a central staircase from the top to the bottom.] The move from designing ingle houses to large apartments gave Tadao the skills and experience he required to develop his talent. The 1980s therefore, represent a turning point in Tadao`s career as he not only immersed himself in large housing units but expanded his talents to chapels and museums, there by leading him to a new era (Lane, 2006). This research considers the period between t...