Tadao Ando: lood Inspirations
Photography of MPavilion - Ayden Demiri
Tadao Ando was born in 1941 in Japan and developed as an autodidact architect. Autodidact is deriving from words (autós, or "self") and (didaktikos, or "teaching"). In other words, an autodidact is self-taught person, or a person who is capable of learning things on their own.
Ando credits his interest in Architecture beginning with an encounter with the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in the late 1950’s as a teenager( demolished in 1968) designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, also and autodidact. His exploration of architecture also included minimalists such as Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Ando has since received numerous architecture awards through his career, including the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995, the 2002 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, and in 2023 was named recipient of the Kyoto Prize for lifetime achievement in the arts and philosophy.
Tadaos’ style is characterised by concrete which is used in both an architectural and structural medium. The finish achieved on Andos walls is well documented as a painstaking and exacting process to mask any blemishes arising from the industrial process of concrete fabrication.
Many have written about Ando Tadao and his style is described in a variety of ways, brutalist, minimalist, modern and more recently as critical regionalism.
Two members of lood reflect on their experience of visiting the MPavillion, Tadao Ando’s first Australian project.
Photography of MPavilion - Ayden Demiri
“Tadao Ando is a renowned architect who’s work spans the globe, with a recent creation established in Melbourne’s CBD. A concrete, almost dystopian structure located in a somber park across from the National Gallery of Victoria. This new development comes as another achievement for the Japanese born architect.”
Ando’s work spans from more intimate residential works, such as Azuma House in Tokyo, to the construction of institutional buildings like the Fabrica Research Center in Italy. Tadao Ando has over 300 seperate architectural works around the world, with his most recent debut being in Melbourne, the design and architecture communities were ecstatic of this new development.
The first impression created by Tadao Ando’s architecture is that of its materiality. His powerful concrete walls set a limit. Beyond this point there is no passage but that which is opened by his will. A second impression of Tadao Ando’s architecture is its tactility. Hard walls seem soft to the touch. They exclude then enclose, admitting light, wind, and the passing visitor, who leaves behind the disorder of everyday existence to be sheltered in a realm of stillness. A third impression of Tadao Ando’s architecture is its emptiness. Within, only light and space surround the visitor.
Enso, the mysterious circles drawn by Zen Buddhist monks in a single stroke, symbolise emptiness, oneness, and the moment of enlightenment. The circle and other rigorous geometric forms are the vocabulary of Ando, related as much to Western architecture as to any Eastern thought. He cites the Pantheon in Rome as an influence on his work; proof that simple shapes fashioned with a mastery of light and materials can create a transcendent space. He speaks also of the “Prisons” in Piranesi’s ‘Carceri d’invenzioni’ whose “dynamic verticality” contrasts with the horizontal emphasis of much traditional Japanese architecture, which is “non-geometric and irregular” by nature. Tadao Ando has said that a goal of his work is to bring together these apparently divergent ideas of space in a “unified transcendent architecture.” What Ando seeks, and what he finds in his best work, is the simplicity of perfection, a faultless circle drawn by a steady hand in a single stroke. (Jodidio, 2020, p. 7)
I, Ayden Demiri, the Photographer at lood, had the opportunity to visit Tadao Ando’s most recent production in Melbourne, this was my experience.
We are visual creatures, those who find themselves in the world of art, design, architecture and so on, I believe that appreciation of a well made thing, no matter how intimate or monolithic in nature, is to some, one in the same. Ando’s newest creation lies within the Queen Victoria gardens, a slice of peace, a contrast to the chaos of the CBD. Upon first inspection, the building seemed monolithic and stark in nature, its disk-like roof was a sleek addition that provided the build with a lower profile along the open area in which it occupied. A concrete building usually doesn't scream tranquility, though upon entry, I was made apparent of its true connection to the surrounding gardens, through the use of perfect, precision cuts in the concrete structure along two seperate sides. These windows made it so this structure was a part of the nature, my preconceived notion was that this building seemed brutalist, dystopian, out of place. Tadao’s vision was now understood by me, after heavy examination, I took to my camera and photographed what it was that I was seeing in this structure, as the shadows transformed hour by hour, my perception of this place was changing, the transformation of its shadows made angles I had never considered before more apparent, the place felt more like an otherworldly or divine sight, rather than the work of man.
Photography of MPavilion - Ayden Demiri
Biography
(“Tadao Ando Biography,” 1995)
Tadao Ando Biography. (1995). The Pritzker Architecture Prize. https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laure- ates/1995#laureate-page-186
(Jodidio, 2020, p. 7)
Jodidio, P. (2020). Ando. Complete works 1975-Today. 40th ed. Taschen.
“Tadao Ando is one of my favourite architects, I love his use of concrete and strong geometric forms and the way he interplays these with nature and light. When traveling I have been fortunate to visit some of his work and they are always in the highlight reels of the trip.”
Photography of Benesse House, Naoshima (Japan) - David Robinson
When visiting Japan, I made the pilgrimage to Naoshima Island in the south coast of Japan between Hiroshima and Osaka. Often referred to as The Art Island, it has some very epic pieces of Ando architecture, I was fortunate to stay in Benesse House which incorporates accomodation within the museum. It was a fantastic experience to stay in an Ando building and freely wander around the environment both day and night. Naoshima is also the location of the Chichu Art Museum, another Ando epic, sunken into the landscape and capturing light in unexpected ways. Every gallery and courtyard used natural light to display the collection in combination with its subterranean feel, it made for a very special experience.
In January 2023 I made the trek from Seoul to Wonju and the Museum SAN is a striking example of Andos architecture, I was really taken by his use of natural stone walls in combination with his trademark concrete. The meditation space - ‘Space of Light’ is cut into a mound on the site and is entered by a long deep walkway revealing a sunken cube illuminated by an open cross in the ceiling, a beautiful calming environment. The main building is surrounded by reflective pools of water which are also viewed from within, the whole experience of visiting this museum is completely calming and meditative.
Photography of Museum SAN, Wonju (South Korea) - David Robinson
On my return from Seoul I visited the MPavilion in the Queen Victoria gardens. The 10th summer Pavilion in this place sponsored by the Milligram foundation. MPavilion resides in the space in the park for a short time and is then transferred to another permanent location. Ando himself describes the MPavillion as’ an architecture of emptiness. In his statement about the structure he goes on to say:
“With the circle and square, emptiness is given form.
The emptiness, in its silence, lets the light and wind enter and breathe life into the space.
The emptiness provokes a chance encounter between individuals and engenders dialogues. The emptiness resonates with the environment, becomes one with the garden, and blossoms into a microcosmos of infinite creativity.”
Photograph of MPavilion - David Robinson
It was exciting to see Andos’ characteristic concrete forms in Melbourne, opposite the NGV. On entering the pavilion one is instantly reminded of another Pavillion in Barcelona which unlike the fleeting visit of Andos Pavilion in Melbourne has sat in its garden home for almost 100 years. Andos’ use of water and reflection is not new and it adds to the beauty and experience in the MPavilion. The Pavilion explores light and wind and movement and emptiness in a deeply calming way. It will be interesting to see where its permanent home will be. I will definitely visit it when it has a permanent home.
