Tadao Ando (安藤忠雄)’s Museums in

Dr. Law Chi Lim

Tadao Ando (安藤忠雄, born 1941) is a well- known Japanese from Japan whose works are admired for their complex spatial designs and simplicity in form. Prior to the 1990s, his works have been restricted to within Japan itself , particularly in the greater Osaka area. In 1995, he was awarded the Pritzker Prize for which is considered to be the highest international distinction in the field , and he gained international fame.

The hallmark of Ando’s work is the use of reinforced concrete walls. These walls are made up of individual slabs, always grey in colour with no camouflage or plaster on it, and characterized by the evenly spaced holes on it (which are the result of bolts used to hold the wooden molds that are used to form and solidify the concrete during the making process). If you have a chance to touch these walls, you will note that in contrast to crude concrete walls elsewhere, Ando’s concrete is smooth as silk and almost feels incredibly like marble. Apparently one requires specially trained craftsmen to make these concrete slabs. For Ando’s overseas projects, he often needs to take along specialized Japanese craftsmen to the project site to ensure that the concrete slabs made are up to standard. Imitators elsewhere are just not able to copy the quality of the workmanship. Take for example the crematorium at Diamond Hill in Hong Kong. The whole place, with its curved concrete walls and semi-spiral staircases were built in Ando’s style, but the surface of the concrete walls is so coarse that it almost cuts your skin when you try to run your hand over it. In addition, the lack of maintenance over the years have resulted in the walls discoloured and stained, a really sad state of affairs.

Ando’s structures typically use these concrete slabs, which may be curved or angled, to create space on the basis of geometrical shapes of squares, circles, triangles and rectangles. Visitors to these structures are invited to a Zen-like experience inside the spaces or corridors created by these simple gray-coloured concrete walls , coupled with the interplay of light and wind that Ando is so good at creating.

Perhaps the best examples of Ando’s works can be found on the island of Naoshima with several museum designed by him there. This place is a bit outside the usual radar of the average tourist from Hong Kong. However, there are quite a few works by Ando which are easily accessible from Osaka, a favourite base for “freedom tourists” from Hong Kong. The following is two of them.

Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art (朝日啤酒大山崎山庄美朮館) This museum is about 45 minutes out of Osaka ( get off at the Yamazaki Station 山崎駅 on the JR Line 京都綫) The original building of this museum was built in the early 1900s as a British-style residence to serve as a country retreat by a Japanese businessman Shotaro Kaga ( 1888-1954). Even the inside of the residence resembles a classical turn-of-the- century British royal residence with its wooden staircases , chandeliers and fireplaces. While the core of the art collections were that of Mr. T Yamamoto, the first president of Asahi Brewery and consist of his collection from Japan and abroad, the highlight is the annex designed by Ando. This so-called “Underground Jewelry Box” is buried underground so as to blend into the surrounding lush green scenery. Descending into the underground along a narrow staircase , one is immediately treated to Ando’s classical grey cement walls with an inter play of light and shadow from the lights coming in from above. The permanent display there is aptly called “Light and Illumination”. In fact, this museum was one of the first to use COB LED Spotlights which produce lights with a spectrum which is very similar to that of sun-rays, thus adding to the viewing pleasures of the

water-lilies paintings by Monet inside the museum.

Osaka Prefecture Sayamaike Musuem (大阪府立狹山池博物館) Just 20 minutes on the Nankai Koya Line (南海高野線) from Namba (難波) , getting off at the Osakasayamashi Station (大坂狹山駅), this museum is a feast of Ando’s signatures. Visitors are required to traverse a huge rectangular pond with waterfalls on both sides before entering the museum via a spiral staircase. This is no doubt a reference to the history of this area ( Sayamaike, 狹山) which is the site of the oldest dam project for water irrigation and flood control in Japan. Inside the museum , one can see relics of the irrigation project from over 1400 years ago . Perhaps the most interesting display was a section of the original dam that was built over 1000 ago. The cross-section of this dam reveals evidence of changes due to earthquakes and reconstruction at different times in history.