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Novel architecture helps people embrace harmony between man and nature
By Sang Ni and Wang Jie |
July 26, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ON June 29th, renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando gave a speech to an audience of 3,000 in the auditorium of Tongji University.
Ando enjoys almost celebrity status as a maverick genius in the field of architecture. His designs feature exposed concrete and geometrical configurations. He is a visiting professor at many top universities, including Yale, Columbia and Harvard. In 1995, Ando won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest honor in the field of architecture. His architectural concepts and works, never tarnished by flaunty extravagance, have helped people embrace the original beauty of nature.
The first photo presented by Ando during the speech was not of his own work, but of the large crowds attracted to the newly completed Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut, a representative work of the French master Le Corbusier. "It is this photo that ignited my dream to become an architect." he said. "To gather up people °?- this is what architecture really signifies."
When talking about his latest architectural concepts, Ando said he had found himself a new inspiration - environmental protection. He invited former French President Jacques Chirac and U2's lead singer Bono to promote the Oceanic Forest project near Tokyo Bay. "I hope I can make this project as extensive as possible. These saplings will become three meters tall three years later. We hope we can raise money for 500,000 trees, and so far we have already done so for 430,000," he said. He wants to turn Tokyo green, with more greenbelts around the rail networks and all the electric cables put underground.
"Today in Tokyo, half of the electric cables have already been put underground," he said. "As architects, we should shoulder the responsibility of environmental protection."
His concept of environmental protection has also been embodied in the projects he has designed in Jiading.
Ando's first work in China was the Shanghai Architecture and Culture Center in Malu, Jiading. It has a floor space of about 5,000 square meters and will house China's first architecture library and gallery as well as supporting facilities for academic research.
With his signature concrete for exterior, the building looks like two rectangular boxes, while the space inside the building exudes a layered feeling. As its greatest highlight, the building is embedded in a vineyard with a brook babbling at its front gate.
As the architect himself described his blueprint, "The center is surrounded by flourishing vegetation, and a brook is slowly flowing by, rolling out a beautiful bucolic landscape before our eyes." The work ingeniously harmonizes man and nature.
He followed that work with his design for the Poly theater in Jiading New Town.
This is Shanghai's first theater commanding a river view. Once completed, the building will integrate the natural elements of water, wind and light amid a kaleidoscope of simple geometric shapes.
"Although I am already in my 60s, I always think and design with dreams," the media-shy architect said. "Without dreams, the young soon turn aged."
Ando enjoys almost celebrity status as a maverick genius in the field of architecture. His designs feature exposed concrete and geometrical configurations. He is a visiting professor at many top universities, including Yale, Columbia and Harvard. In 1995, Ando won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest honor in the field of architecture. His architectural concepts and works, never tarnished by flaunty extravagance, have helped people embrace the original beauty of nature.
The first photo presented by Ando during the speech was not of his own work, but of the large crowds attracted to the newly completed Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut, a representative work of the French master Le Corbusier. "It is this photo that ignited my dream to become an architect." he said. "To gather up people °?- this is what architecture really signifies."
When talking about his latest architectural concepts, Ando said he had found himself a new inspiration - environmental protection. He invited former French President Jacques Chirac and U2's lead singer Bono to promote the Oceanic Forest project near Tokyo Bay. "I hope I can make this project as extensive as possible. These saplings will become three meters tall three years later. We hope we can raise money for 500,000 trees, and so far we have already done so for 430,000," he said. He wants to turn Tokyo green, with more greenbelts around the rail networks and all the electric cables put underground.
"Today in Tokyo, half of the electric cables have already been put underground," he said. "As architects, we should shoulder the responsibility of environmental protection."
His concept of environmental protection has also been embodied in the projects he has designed in Jiading.
Ando's first work in China was the Shanghai Architecture and Culture Center in Malu, Jiading. It has a floor space of about 5,000 square meters and will house China's first architecture library and gallery as well as supporting facilities for academic research.
With his signature concrete for exterior, the building looks like two rectangular boxes, while the space inside the building exudes a layered feeling. As its greatest highlight, the building is embedded in a vineyard with a brook babbling at its front gate.
As the architect himself described his blueprint, "The center is surrounded by flourishing vegetation, and a brook is slowly flowing by, rolling out a beautiful bucolic landscape before our eyes." The work ingeniously harmonizes man and nature.
He followed that work with his design for the Poly theater in Jiading New Town.
This is Shanghai's first theater commanding a river view. Once completed, the building will integrate the natural elements of water, wind and light amid a kaleidoscope of simple geometric shapes.
"Although I am already in my 60s, I always think and design with dreams," the media-shy architect said. "Without dreams, the young soon turn aged."
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