december 6, 2001 tadao ando receives 2002 AIA gold medal - highest individual honor paid to architect whose

work embodies the timelessness of all enduring architecture.

Without this spirit, Modernist architecture cannot fully exist. Since there is often a mismatch between the logic and the spirit of Modernism, I use architecture to reconcile the two.

who would you like to design something for? I believe that the way people live can be directed a little by architecture. I would like my architecture to inspire people to use their own resources, to move into the future. although now we are more and more governed by the american way of thinking, money, the economy... I hope that now people will shift to a more european way (of thinking), culture, individuality, and that people move towards new goals. so for me to be able to contribute to this would be great

describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it. walls are the most basic elements of architecture, and in all my works, light is an important factor. the primary reason is to create a place for the individual, a zone for oneself within society. its very difficult to explain or describe my style, I hope the answer will come out of the interview

I would like my architecture to inspire people to use their own resources, to move into the future. - Tadao Ando If you give people nothingness, they can ponder what can be achieved from that nothingness. - Tadao Ando In the West there has always been the attempt to try make the religious building, whether it's a Medieval or Renaissance church, an eternal object for the celebration of God. The material chosen, such as stone, brick, or concrete, is meant to eternally preserve what is inside. - Tadao Ando

 , And Tadao, born September 13, 1941, in Osaka, Japan) is a Japanese architect whose approach to architecture was once categorized as critical regionalism. Ando has led a storied life, working as a truck driver and boxer prior to settling on the profession of architecture, despite never having taken formal training in the field. He works primarily in exposed cast-in-place 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 Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the highest distinction in the field of architecture. He donated the $100,000 prize money to the orphans of the 1995 Kobe earthquake

church of the light, osaka, japan courtesy of tadao ando architect & associates

Rokko Housing I and II, Kobe

the pulitzer foundation for the arts (saint louis art museum), saint louis, usa

Azuma House

Langen Foundation

Gallery Noda