Tadao Ando

Feature

Architecture beneath the tangible

Maria Ivanova · 2026-07-19

Tadao Ando

Tadao Ando is one of the most influential architects of 21st century, who challenges the conventional definition and boarders of architecture. His unique approach showcased the rethinking of traditional Japanese principles through bold shapes, materials and spatial organizations. In this article we are going to reveal the core principles of his philosophy and its cues.

Background and Influences

Tadao Ando was born in Osaka (once called the “City of Water”) in 1941. He was born as the first twin, but then his parents decided to separate them. Tadao Ando was raised by his maternal grandmother in a simple neighborhood with a variety of craftsmen, woodworkers, and others. He spent days in their workshops working with materials, builds airplanes and ships. It would be fair to say that this environment served as a foundation for the life-learning the renowned architect pursued.

From the age of 17, being influenced by his twin, Ando started to take up boxing. This sport has shaped his fighting spirit, which helps him in the future life.

In the early 20s, during the period of 1962-1969, after the Japanese ban was lifted, Tadao Ando took a trip to Europe, United States and Africa. He took a ship from Japan to the Soviet Union, where he went to Moscow with a week-long Trans-Siberian Railway. During that trip, he saw many countries and had an indisputable architectural experience, which would later become the basis of his famous quote:

“Architecture encompasses things that cannot be captured through the media. This is why architects must travel; architects are made through traveling”

Despite an acquaintance with numerous buildings in different countries, his desired destination for this journey was the heritage of Le Corbusier, who nourished his interest in architecture.

He got to know a French iconic architect by chance, finding his manuscript in an old secondhand bookshop. The value of this book lies not in the actual price but entirely in the footprint it left on Tadao Ando's life and career. The architect was fascinated by the projects and recalled that he had traced Corbusier’s early sketches so many times that the paper had become almost black. Furthermore, he admitted that while thinking about his own projects, he thinks about what Le Corbusier would have said about it and how he would evaluate it.

Tadao Ando didn’t receive formal training in any field, but opened his firm, “Tadao Ando Architect & Associates,” in 1969 in Osaka, after returning from his long “field-study” in various countries, that, along with the Japanese spatial philosophy and books about architecture, shaped his way of thinking. Ando didn’t pursue an empirical way of learning by being a student of other architects, as his stubbornness and temper always led to dismissal.

The first attempts in design were with small wooden houses, interiors, and furniture. However, it's been 6 years of his practice before he completed the Row House (Azuma House), which gave him praise and recognition through the prize from the Japanese Architectural Association.

Another project executed in the late 1970s, the Rokko Housing complex, was widely published and emphasized its importance in the architectural field beyond the local context. It's inserted into a slope at the foot of the Rokko Mountains, allowing panoramic views. Remaining loyal to the rigid grid and geometry, Tadao Ando nonetheless worked in a more elaborate form and composition, proving that simplicity is a conscious, but not limiting, choice for his philosophical embodiment.

The following projects strengthened the tendency for transboundary recognition. Such buildings as Church on the Water (1988) in Tomamu, Hokkaido or Church of the Light (1988-89) in Ibaraki, Osaka promote their author as an architect with a deep spiritual understanding of the space and nature connection. In spite of Japan being the only country to host his projects by the end of 1980, the influence has changed the status quo, and in 1991 the Modern Museum of Modern Art gave an exhibition dedicated to Tadao Ando, indirectly labeling him “one of the preeminent living architects in the world”.

Throughout the whole career till nowadays Tadao Ando designer more than 300 constructed projects all over the world.

We can name three main pillars of his approach, influenced by the background:

Traditional Japanese architecture. Growing up in Japan in residential common dwellings inevitably influences the perception and the initial idea about certain aspects. However, according to Tadao Ando's words in the interview with Toshio Okumana, he doesn’t use any traditional architectural elements, but wants to evoke the feeling of it, through adaptation of emotional sensitivity, rather then direct physical elements. The last is an artificial addition to the building, which nevertheless keeps it standardized without enhancing the perceptive depth and significance, which are laid between the obvious presence of elements. The approach is not mimicry of the form, but the mimicry of feeling.

Ephemeral and intangible over physical. Tadao Ando is inclined to give a predominant role to the ephemeral elements in architecture, which is commonly recognized as solid and structural matter. However, the consistent presence and monumentality perform as a background for important factors, such as light, which deal with subtle susceptibility. Most probably this intention is directed by the experience which architect exposed himself to at teenage years: around the age 15, he went to study old rural houses to impress upon himself the traditional Japanese space.

Study of architecture through travelling and experience of the space. As it was a major part of his self-taught architectural education, the concentration on the feeling and emotions in his own projects keep the same significance.

Architectural Philosophy and Design Principles

“Tension in acceptance”

There is a strong belief penetrating the Japanese architecture framework, concerning the blend of the outside environment and the interior space. The borders between the above-mentioned dual definitions are meant to be softened, visually and physically melting into each other to avoid the rigid division. This idea of harmonious coexistence of antagonist spaces found its base in philosophy and historical relationship with nature, and it is supported by many strategies in the Nippon Koku.

However, Tadao Ando had directly defined, both verbally and in his projects, that his mindset is occupied with the idea of the necessity of rejection. According to his words, acceptance means setting down one’s guards, allowing for excessive inflow into the interior, which by these means is losing its certainty. The reason lies in the absence of tension in the act of rejection. Thus, the renowned architect is convinced that tension should be an indisputable part of acceptance as well as in the architectural context, tension signifies the confrontation between exterior and interior, underscoring the importance of the places in a building of their contest.

Walls, as the strongest border between the intrinsic and extrinsic, play a significant role in Tadao Ando's approach �� he works with thin materiality and by specific positions with intervals creates openings to allow the structure accept even in the act of prime rejection. Walls are perceived as a “sword”, which cuts the landscape, sky, wind, and sunlight in order to promote new disclosure. This act of manifestation is not seen as a cruelty to the exterior, but as a ceremonial and sacred deed, with assimilating nature as an equal part of architecture.

“Essentials of human life”

Tadao Ando is known for his minimalist approach, reflected by the boldness and fine clarity of his ideas. It touches upon walls and the spatial arrangement. However, the simplicity of the walls and their raw forms and finishes is not based on mere aesthetic considerations; its foundation is deeply rooted in Ando’s philosophy of life. He believes that contemporary culture is characterized by a loop of satisfying unconstrained and never-ending desires, so he raised a silent question about what contributes to the richness of life and what is essential. Through his projects, he is conveying a supposed answer with the underlying meaning of true abundance, which is translated in simplification, elimination of surface decoration, and employment of symmetrical compositions.

Architectural silence

The striking quietude of the architect’s projects is defined by his faith that architecture should remain silent and let the presence of changing nature to be dominant, staying tolerant to the passage of time, hourly, daily, and seasonal transformations, that nurture a finer sensitivity in humans.

Revitalization of nature connection

According to Tadao Ando, the population growth and urbanization after World War II made it impossible to preserve the core base of traditional Japanese residential architecture – connection with nature and openness to it. In his projects, this principle goes beyond the mere tribute to the historical value, but rather is performed as a main builder of the concept, shape and mass distribution.

“Voids as a part of architecture”

If the architecture can be compared to sculpture, than its fair to make a correlation with the void mass relation. Even if the observation of these two media is irrelevant, it helps to scale down the building structure and start to perceive it mainly in masses. Tadao Ando had a strong persuasion that it's essential to leave blank spaces in project design, and endow them with the same significance as the man-made intervention. The interstices should bear their intrinsic logic within the structure, and this approach enhances the value and the individuality of the architecture.

Light is an important controlling spatial factor

Tadao Ando has a focal focus on the role of light in the built environment. He believes that the architecture is not about walls, floor, and ceiling, but about the contained world outside. This space can be changed not only by the form, but also by the means of directed light. If the more grounded correlation is to be made, the way light defines the character of the rooms resembles the fireplace in a traditional home . The light can be manipulated in different ways to create a gentle environment for habitats.

Restricted vocabulary

This principle of Tadao Ando’s works is directly perceived by every observer, even the one with no experience in architecture or any related field. The paradox of the limited use in different categories of built structure is the correlation between the level of limitations and the visual and sensory effect. Moderate material palette, strictness of forms, and dignified simplicity of spatial relations result in a visually attention-getting object, also through the difference with the natural and man-made environment.

One of the most remarkable examples, that, according to the architect's words, encapsulates all of his principles and emphasizes the essence of the whole oeuvre is a Row House Sumiyoshi (Azuma House) in Osaka, Japan, constructed in 1976. The residential module is located in a dense urban environment, and its rectangular shape is divided into three equal parts, where the middle is dedicated to the open courtyard, connecting habitats with nature, exposing them to changing weather conditions every time they want to go from one part of the house to the other and emphasizing the priority of nature even in the challenging conditions. The equality of the open part and its obligatory binding function encapsulates Tadao Ando's approach to incorporate blankness.

The chosen material is unfinished concrete, which is also a substantial characteristic of the prominent architect. It creates a moderate appearance of the house, not trying to evoke warmer feelings, but rather keeping true to the material and shifting the attention to the intrinsic values and meanings. The envelope of the Azuma House is not designed to impress; the facades of Tadao Ando’s buildings do not respond to the modern expectations of superficial satisfaction in every aspect.

Tadao Ando's philosophy is unique, and it can't be more accurately conveyed than through his words. In his essay “A Wedge in Circumstances,” he explained his approach to the residential space – the house is a stage for living; therefore, the manner of entertaining and the paths are very important. He is convinced that the architectural plan shouldn’t be perceived from the inside – once a visitor steps into the space, it's not important for him/her to comprehend the layout, he/she should cognitively comprehend the embraced space. That’s the reason for asymmetrical, variable, and unpredictable space relations in his projects.

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