tadao ando's early drawings and hand-drawn plans go on view in tokyo

50 years ago, a self-taught japanese architect by the name of tadao ando established his own atelier. since then, ando — who is now recognized as one of the world’s most famous contemporary architects — has built projects across the globe, been featured in numerous exhibitions, and delivered countless lectures.

image © national archives of modern architecture, agency for cultural affairs, japan (also main image)

now, a new exhibition — titled ‘early drawings of tadao ando’ — showcases his early architectural materials, namely hand-drawn plans and sketches that date back to the 1970s. the featured projects include a number of his masterpieces in japan, such as the row house in sumiyoshi (1976), the koshino house (1981), rokko housing Ⅰ (1983), time’s Ⅰ (1984), the kidosaki house (1986), the church on the water (1988), and the church of the light (1989).

row house in sumiyoshi | plan drawing | pencil , color pencil and ink on tracing paper (left),
row house in sumiyoshi | section drawing | pencil and color pencil on paper (right), and the scale model
image © designboom

according to the curator, the theme of the exhibition, ‘autonomy and dialogue’, expresses the ideas and principles that motivated ando in the early stages of his profession. throughout his career, the architect sought to create spaces where people could develop ‘personal autonomy’ by finding and deepening one’s self through engaging in dialogue with things such as the city, nature, light, history, and culture.

sketches and drawings for church of the light
image © designboom

ando claims that he seeks ‘to condense the intent behind the design into a single drawing’. indeed, the many drawings in the exhibition — which are meticulously constructed and marked by an enhanced three-dimensionality achieved through the superimposition of sections, perspectives, and axonometric projections over floor plans — very much embody the architect’s idea of space. the exhibition remains on view until september 23, 2019 at the national archives of modern architecture in tokyo.

image © national archives of modern architecture, agency for cultural affairs, japan

image © national archives of modern architecture, agency for cultural affairs, japan

sketches and drawings for glass block house
image © designboom

sketches and drawings for koshino house
image © designboom

image © national archives of modern architecture, agency for cultural affairs, japan

site drawings | silkscreen print and color pencil on paper
image © designboom

image © designboom

image © national archives of modern architecture, agency for cultural affairs, japan

image © national archives of modern architecture, agency for cultural affairs, japan

image © national archives of modern architecture, agency for cultural affairs, japan

image © national archives of modern architecture, agency for cultural affairs, japan

model of the chapel on mt. rokko
image © designboom

image © national archives of modern architecture, agency for cultural affairs, japan

sketches for the church on the water
image © designboom

model of the church on the water
image © designboom

sketches in ando’s diary
image © designboom

image © designboom

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project info:

exhibition title: early drawings of tadao ando: autonomy and dialogue
venue: national archives of modern architecture, agency for cultural affairs 4‐6‐15 yushima, bunkyo-ku, tokyo, japan
dates: june 8, 2019 – september 23, 2019
hours: 10:00 – 16:30