Tadao Ando : endeavours

Tadao Ando

endeavors

« I don't know if there is anything universal about my work, but I tell myself that, at the very least, I must design buildings that touch the spirit of those who live in and around them. »

Tadao Ando is one of the most significant figures of contemporary architecture. This comprehensive monograph, which traces Ando's career from his earliest experiments in Japan to his prestigious worldwide commissions, was originally released to accompany a landmark exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. It examines the principles and materials that inform Ando's work, such as his use of smooth concrete ; his emphasis on simple geometric proportions ; the natural elements - light and water in particular - that Ando introduces into his structures ; and the importance he places on the way his architecture is experienced physically.

A self-taught practitioner, Ando discovered and was significantly influenced by the works of Le Corbusier. Traveling widely in the United States, Europe, and Africa, he studied the world's great architectural masterpieces, founding his own studio in Osaka upon his return to Japan in 1969. The recipient of many prestigious awards - including the Pritzker Prize in 1995 - today Ando continues to work on numerous large-scale projects, including a new museum of contemporary art for the Pinault Collection at the former Bourse de Commerce, Paris.

This monograph illustrates seventy of Ando's most striking projects, highlighting their understated elegance and revealing the theories that underpin his architecture. Alongside illuminating essays and project descriptions, three additional sections offer broader insight into Ando's work : his black-and-white photography, his highly finished pencil drawings, and - reproduced here for the first time - sketches from his travel journals, which have proved a rich source of inspiration since his early career.