・The Building
The building is a low-rise structure consisting of one ground floor and one underground floor. Most of the volume of the building, which has a unique form featuring a roof made from giant steel plates that slope gently down to the ground, is buried underground. Once inside, the space opens out on a scale unimaginable given the building's unobtrusive exterior. The ground floor houses the entrance and reception area, while the underground floor houses two galleries and a triangular sunken court. A feature of the building is that it is encased in the longest section of double-glazing in Japan.
The building was designed by architect Tadao Ando, whose brief was to design a structure that would represent Japan.
PHOTO：MASAYA YOSHIMURA／NACASA＆PARTNERS, Inc.
[Profile]
Tadao Ando
Born in Osaka in 1941.
Self-educated in architecture, he established Tadao Ando Architect & Associates in 1969.
Major projects include the Church of the Light, the Armani Teatro, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Chichu Art Musuem.
Among the many awards he has received are the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize in 1979 for his Row House in Sumiyoshi, the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the Asahi Prize in 1995, the AIA Gold Medal and the Kyoto Prize in 2002, and the UIA (Union Internationale des Architectes) Gold Medal in 2005.
He has been actively involved in reconstruction efforts in the wake of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake as the chairman of the 10th Year Restoration Assistance Committee, and in ongoing tree-planting activities by establishing the Setouchi Olive Foundation in 2000.
His published writings include “Kenchiku wo kataru” (Talking about architecture) and “Rensen renpai” (Successive battles, successive defeats) (both from University of Tokyo Press).
Portrait photo: Kazuharu Igarashi