TADAO ANDO

Church on Water
Material Concrete
Timeline 1984-1987
Type Religious
Location Hokkaido, Japan
Built Area 344.9 sqm
Total Area 520 sqm
 1 Description
Found sloping down towards a small river in
a clearing of beech trees, the element of
nature apparent in all the architecture of
Tadao Ando initiates subliminal experiences
in this Church on the Water in Tomamu,
Japan.

To the west, the church is surrounded by

hills and trees, and a resort hotel lies to the
east. The church, with a form of two
overlapping cubes, faces a large pond which
steps down towards the small natural river.

Sketch by Tadao Ando

 2 Concept
Wrapped in an aesthetic devoid of ornament, many of the
works of Tadao Ando base their wealth in building the
relationship with nature. In that sense, the Church on the
water, is one of its most successful achievements which
uses nature as an element involved in the design. In it,
Ando succeeds in creating a microcosm in which combines
a simple but masterful concepts on the profane and the
sacred, the artificial and natural, and closed above the
vacuum and infinity.

The most notable is that Ando has replaced the front wall
of the temple, which usually have pictures of a certain
divine religious significance, with a more vivid and
eloquent representation of the Creator: nature itself. This
will provide a live scene, multicolored and always
changing, which runs from pallets sepias in autumn,
glaucos shades of winter, spring flowers spots in the
intense green in summer.
3 Design
The larger of the two cubes serves as the chapel, and meets the
entrance of the smaller cube with a semi-circular spiral staircase. In
order to separate the church from the hotel that rests behind it, a long,
L-shaped wall runs alongside the south and east of the buildings that line
the edge of the pond.

To gain entrance to the church, the visitor enters under a glass and steel
cube at the northernmost end which houses four large concrete crosses
that pull the gaze upwards. The path leads up and around these crosses,
and then down the connecting dark spiral stairway into the larger cube
of the chapel below.

Upon entering the chapel, visitors are struck with the view of the pond
and surrounding trees and hillside through the operable glass wall. The
other three walls are made of concrete, which also frame a steel cross
placed in the middle of the pond.

Ando succeeded in his intentions to design a sacred space through the

ritualistic and circuitous entry route, as well as with the L-shaped wall
that distinguishes the church as a secluded and protected space apart
from the hotel behind it. The natural environment around the church
adds to the experience, especially in the months between December and
April when the ground is covered in snow.
THANK YOU
Submitted by- Submitted to-

Mohit Bansal Ar. Kajal Handa Arshi

190040031