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LIGHT AND CONCRETE, TADAO ANDO
Awaji: descending
into silence
From Osaka I take the train south, to
Awaji Island, where the Water Temple
rises. The approach forces you to des-
cend a circular staircase surrounded
by a lotus-covered pond. The visitor
goes down, quite literally, into silence.
Beneath the surface, the temple re-
veals itself as a sanctuary of pure lines,
of concrete and half-light.
The sound of the water and the echo
of footsteps blend into an atmosphere
that invites meditation. Here, architec-
ture ceases to be an object and beco-
mes a state of mind.
Entrance to the Water Temple
Naoshima:
art underground
My next destination is Naoshima, the
island of art, in the Seto Inland Sea.
It is a place where landscape and
art blend, where Ando has designed
some of his most poetic buildings: the
Benesse House Museum, the Chi-
chu Art Museum and the Lee Ufan
Museum. Reaching Naoshima is an
experience in itself: a boat journey be-
tween islands that seem to float sus-
pended in time.
In the Chichu Art Museum, art is lite-
rally underground. Ando conceived it
as a subterranean space to protect the
beauty of the surroundings. There is no
visible façade, only a garden and, be-
neath it, rooms open to the sky where
the light changes with every hour. The-
re rest the works of Monet, James Tu-
rrell and Walter De Maria, illuminated
by the sun filtering through geometric
cuts in the concrete. It is a building that
breathes with the day, a gallery that
needs neither white walls nor electric
spotlights to move you.
Walter De Maria, ‘Time/Timeless/No Time’, (2004). Chichu Art Museum, Japan. Image © Mitsuo Matsuoka
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Tokyo: geometry
and calm
In Tokyo, I visit Omotesando Hills,
a commercial complex that Ando
designed in the very heart of the ca-
pital’s most elegant district. There,
among boutiques and cafés, his ar-
chitecture takes on an urban, almost
experimental tone. The building des-
cends in a spiral, with ramps that sof-
ten the route. Despite its commercial
function, it maintains that characte-
ristic serenity of his work: bare con-
crete, exact proportions, filtered light.