"Everybody can enjoy Ando's work," says Yayoi

Motohashi, curator of "Endeavors." "And his

biography is really encouraging. He didn't have
enough money to get an education. He did
everything himself."

The self-taught Japanese architect was born in

1941 the eldest of twin boys, who were separated
in their infancy. Ando went to live with his
grandmother, who nurtured in him a talent for
craftsmanship.
His younger years had no trace of great promise:
he worked briefly as a professional boxer and a
lorry driver, before aged 24 boarding a Siberian
train to Europe "to see the world."
Great buildings caught his eye, in particular,
the works of Le Corbusier -- the Swiss-French
Purist whose concrete designs later inspired
Ando's own. The Japanese architect famously
named his pet dog Corbusier.
After he sailed back to his native of Osaka,
without a degree or having trained with a
master, Ando got his architecture license and
starting designing buildings.
Back then, he was known as the "urban
guerrilla" architect.
From tiny homes with gaping internal
courtyards to sprawling housing complexes,
and then churches that seemed as much a
hymn to his own style as to the spiritual realm,
by 1995 Ando's concrete vision had conquered
the architectural world, and he was awarded
its highest accolade: the Pritzker Prize.
Ando made his breakthrough in
1976 with a windowless
reinforced concrete home.
Slotted between three
traditional Japanese houses,
the Row House in Sumiyoshi is
a reclusive stronghold fed
natural light only by its interior
courtyard. It challenged
conventional ideas of the
home, and won Ando an award
from the Japan Association of
Architecture, but was it
comfortable to inhabit?

The Row House in Sumiyoshi

Tadao Ando is actually one of my favorite architects, and is world renowned for his
stunning manipulation of air, light, and water. This project, his first residential commission,
explores issues we’ve discussed in class regarding heat transfer, air flow, and light.
The building envelope of the Azuma Row House is simple and uniform — a continuous
façade with no apertures, except for one small skylight. Apart from its inward –facing
glass walls and minimal wood finish, the majority of the envelope is cast concrete,
which has a very high specific heat capacity (0.880 J/(gK)), and therefore capable of
absorbing  a lot of heat energy. This trait affects the heating and cooling of the interior
and courtyard in various ways
Courtyard_ Constantly exposed to the sun, the concrete and stone slabs receive heat
energy from the sun’s direct radiation, diffused sky radiation, and any rays reflected
off of surrounding buildings. They cannot easily conduct or release this energy and
stores it throughout the day, gradually increasing in temperature. The ground can
retain a large amount of heat for hours, which can make standing in that space
uncomfortable – think of asphalt on a summer day. Also since hot air molecules rise,
the occupant space air temperature can become overheated and uncomfortable as
well. This is a greater concern in the summer time when exposure and temperatures
are high. Furthermore, by placing the exterior space at the center of the row house
the building envelope’s surface area almost doubles, which can be a crucial matter for
skin-loaded or envelope dominated structures. Expanding the threshold for hot or
cool air to transfer across makes the thermal environment asymmetrical, less
predictable, and uncomfortable.
The Interior­­_ In each room there are four surfaces of exposed concrete. Although the
floors are covered with wood slats providing insulation between the foot and slab, there is
still conduction of heat energy through the walls. Bearing in mind the house’s small scale,
there is likely considerable contact with the building envelope which prompts measurable
heat loss from the human body – comfortable during warm seasons, frustrating during
cold.
The sixth surface of every room is a floor-to-ceiling plane of glass with a glass door.
Although certain types of glass have relatively high heat capacities, the metal mullions
that support the panes are highly conductive – not to mention that a building cannot be
perfectly sealed. A significant temperature difference across this barrier will cause a
convection current that will easily circulate warm air into a cooler courtyard, and vice
versa, causing fluctuations in the room’s temperature.
In addition, without any apertures to penetrate, radiation waves reflect off of the house’s
exterior facade or are absorbed by it. Unlike the courtyard, this heat exchange occurs on
the side the occupants do not have contact with. Since the thick thermal mass absorbs all
of the heat, the interior remains cool. Again, despite the benefit in the summer, this kind
of passive radiant heating could be very useful during the winter.
Thermal Comfort_ After reading Heating,
Cooling, and Lighting by Lechner we discussed
the body’s thermal response to any
environment, or its relationship with the
space’s temperature profile. Many of the
thermally dynamic characteristics of the
Azuma House are beneficial during one season,
and a burden during another. However, some
issues like convection across thermal surfaces
can always work against your desired comfort
zone. Ando includes many conductive and
convective thermal surfaces in his construction
and few radiant sources. The volatility of
convection patterns make air flow, heat
transfer, and therefore room temperature
asymmetrical and unpredictable.
As a skin-load or envelope dominated structure – with climate dependent cooling
requirements– passive solar heating is a reliable method to keep the structure
reasonably comfortable because it is an efficient transfer of heat energy between the
climate and envelope that requires no fluid medium like in convection. Part of what
makes these structures so easily influenced by their envelopes, are their large surface
area-to-volume ratio, which creates a large gateway for heat loss. It’s interesting to see
what fluid dynamics principles, if any, Ando utilized to make the space more
comfortable by modern standards. To start, there are no mechanical systems in the
structure for heating or cooling.
Cross Ventilation_ Again, the building envelope is a continuous and uniform
surface. There aren’t proper inlets or outlets to let wind through the interior spaces, as
there no apertures at all. Therefore, no cross ventilation can occur.
Stack Effect_ However, high-speed winds redirected over the row house can create a
region of lower temperature that draws out the warm air from the courtyard. It
produces something similar to a stack effect. When air in the courtyard gains heat
energy due to high air temperature or thermal radiation, its buoyancy will decrease,
causing it  to rise up out of the courtyard. This is what prompts the convection of cool
air from the interior to the exterior through the glass pane, as I mentioned above
under Interior thermal flows. The rising warm air molecules leave a region of low
pressure that draws the high pressure cool air into the void – as molecules always flow
form groups of greater energy to groups of lower energy.
The current owner, who has lived there for 35
years, says: "While feeling the seasonal
changes on my skin (in) the courtyard every
day, sometimes I resent this house. Sometimes
I get excited about living here, and sometimes
this house challenges me ... (but) I have never
become bored of all the experiences."
Sometimes I resent this house. Sometimes I
get excited about living here, and sometimes
this house challenges me.
"(My work) seems like something
which anyone can make," he tells
CNN. "But (nobody) else can make
it. It is my architecture."
Shaping light is something that seems all too simple for
Architect Tadao Ando. Commissioned in 1987 and located
in Ibaraki-Osaki, Japan, the Church of Light is a prime
example of not only shaping light but how the simplistic
nature of concrete can take on forms through light. The
shape of the structure is simple–a box. The light that is
emitted through the cruciform window gives the illusion
that the massive, dense and heavy concrete quadrants
are floating in space while the angled concrete wall is
objectified, extending through the windows–through the
light–slicing the volume, allowing the light to bleed in
through the concrete’s reflectivity.
The Church of the Light consists a 5.9m concrete
volumes(5.9m wide x 17.7m long x 5.9m high) that is cut
by a freestanding concrete wall angled at 15°, dividing the
box, creating a direct connection between the entrance
and the church.  The line created slices directly through
the window, dividing it and highlighting the outline of the
wall’s shape, literally objectifying the plane.
 The National
Art Center,
Tokyo

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, in St Louis, United States -- a classic Tadao Ando
building.
Japanese architect Tadao Ando has inserted a sweeping
concrete wall into the new Milan store of fashion brand Duvetic
a.
Tadao ando
concrete plates
seamless 01851
During the renovation to
create
Duvetica's showroom on
Via Senato,
Tadao Ando added a seve
n-metre-high angled curv
ing wall that runs from th
e front to the back of the
space.
/
1224966/dezeen_mpu_5

"The core of the project

is a curved and inclined
cement wall that divides
the two floors vertically,
imposing its presence in
the window of Via
Senato," said a statement
from Duvetica.
Casa Wabi by Tadao
The project site is situated directly facing the
South Pacific Ocean, sharing 550 metres of
coastline with only the breathtaking
beach. With such a generous length of site, I
have created a single concrete wall of 312
metres long by 3.6 metres high.
The wall creates horizontal separation between
public programmes on the north side and
private programmes on the south side. The
wall also generates the main circulation path
cutting across every programme, serving as a
dual interior and exterior wall. Rich red and
orange sunset is to be reflected on the
concrete surface.
– Tadao Ando
Concrete Structure House by
Tadao Ando