Architect
Tadao
Tadao
Ando
安藤忠雄
Bury it in the hill, choose the light. Over thirty years of building on Naoshima.
An architect known for buildings of concrete and light. On Naoshima he began with Benesse House and has added buildings for more than thirty years, including the Chichu Art Museum and the Lee Ufan Museum.
- Hotels
- 1hotels
- Regions
- 1regions
- Works
- 7works
- Techniques
Works.
Selected works, and where you can stay- 1992 Benesse House Museum Naoshima Stay
- 1995 Benesse House Oval Naoshima Stay
- 2004 Chichu Art Museum Naoshima
- 2006 Benesse House Park and Beach Naoshima Stay
- 2010 Lee Ufan Museum Naoshima
- 2013 ANDO MUSEUM Naoshima
- 2025 Naoshima New Museum of Art Naoshima
「A museum where the sensibility of one client shines as brightly as it does on Naoshima is a rare thing.」
Tadao Ando, Benesse Art Site Naoshima official magazine, January 2024 (translated by SUMIBIKI)
Hotels.
Tadao Ando — hotels
Columns.
Read about the techniques
i.Timber constructionJoining wood, building in wood: Japanese timber todayFrom traditional joinery that locks wood to wood without nails, to thick cross-laminated panels. Japanese timber construction was once shut out of large buildings for fear of fire, then returned as the laws were rewritten. We read the shapes of joints, the differences between systems, and the timber lodgings Tadao Ando chose on Naoshima.
ii.Reinforced concreteA division of labour between push and pull: reinforced and exposed concreteConcrete is strong when pushed and weak when pulled; steel is the opposite. Reinforced concrete, which combines the two, spread through Japanese cities after the Great Kanto Earthquake. We read the logic of the “cover” that keeps steel from rusting, the skin of exposed concrete marked by formwork and tie holes, and Tadao Ando’s museum half sunk into a hill.