Ando Tadao

When Ando Tadao was about 18, he started to visit temples, shrines and tea houses in Kyoto and Nara because there's a lot of great traditional architecture in the area. He was studying architecture by going to see actual buildings and reading books about them. He also made study trips to Europe and United States to see great buildings.

In 1995, he was awarded not only the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the profession's highest honor, but also the medal of the French Academy, and numerous other medals and fellowships.

In addition to these prestigious honors, in spite of no architectural degree, he has been a visiting professor in the United States at such institutions as Yale, Harvard and Columbia.

There are many of his work around Japan. Time's, a complex of fashion shop in Kyoto, is the one. It is conceived to take advantage of the site on the Takase River. Approaches to the shops are channeled past the river by the use of water level plaza and a bridge-like deck above the plaza.

References: http://www.utp.or.jp/shelf/199906/ando.html http://www.tepco.co.jp/custom/illume/data/a/ando-j.html

Reported by: Akie Adachi
Data verified by: Hiroko Ohashi
Date of Report: November 2001