Tadao Ando was once a professional boxer. Before becoming one of his generation’s most esteemed architects, he had a brief stint with the punching gloves, aged 17, while living in Osaka, Japan.
‘An architect holding a pencil and drawing, and a boxer wearing gloves and stepping into the ring, are of course engaged in entirely different professions and ways of life,' says Ando. ‘But to me, they are fundamentally the same in one respect: both are battles in which you must overcome your own fears and find the courage to move forward. A boxer endures gruelling training and relentless weight cutting, pouring everything into a single fight. In the end, all you can rely on is yourself. Boxing is a profoundly stoic and solitary sport. Yet it is precisely by pushing your body and mind to their limits that you discover strengths you never knew you had.’
Ando goes on to explain that architecture is very much the same; when a project comes with severe constraints on its programme or budget, it leaves little freedom in the design. But, he adds, ‘those very limitations force you to think deeply about what is truly necessary and what you should create. And somewhere in that process, a glimmer of light begins to emerge’.
It is safe to say that the 85-year-old has certainly lived. Now, he has his first memoir to be translated into English, Towards Light, which explores the stories behind his greatest buildings and other anecdotes along the way.
Towards Light by Tadao Ando
The term ‘starchitect’ seems rather reductive when referring to Ando. While his buildings have become cultural landmarks within Osaka and worldwide, they shouldn’t be reduced to his celebrity. Ando’s work is bold. He blends modernist design with Japanese tradition, and effortlessly plays with light, shadow, and nature.
His humble beginnings emphasise his resilience. Born in a working-class family living amongst the ruins of postwar Osaka, he could not afford a university education. He taught himself architecture at night from books, and founded a practice in a cheap rented room in 1969. Success didn’t happen overnight. His first built work was the single-family residence Tomishima House in 1973. Three years later, he had his first major critical breakthrough: Row House in Sumiyoshi (also known as Azuma House), completed in 1976 in Osaka, Japan.
Ando has gone on to be widely acclaimed, receiving the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995, Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects in 2002, and Grande Ufficiale dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia in 2015. He received the Japanese Order of Culture in 2010. But the book isn't all architecture, he explains.
‘Although the book is meant to be an account of an architect's life, as I continued writing, I found myself wandering further and further away from architecture,’ Ando tells Wallpaper*. ‘Readers who pick it up expecting a discussion of architectural theory may be surprised by how much of the book ventures outside of architecture.’
Ando wanted to write as honestly as possible. However, the architect found his thoughts would wander from one subject to another. ‘In the end, I gave up trying to organise my life into a systematic narrative, whether by looking back chronologically or objectively explaining the circumstances behind particular events. Instead, I decided to write freely, following wherever my thoughts took me. That made the process of selection all the more difficult. From the vast accumulation of memories and experiences within me, deciding what to include and which moments to capture in words took some effort.’
Ando says he wants readers to come away thinking, ‘So, that's another way to live a life!’ He concludes, ‘And if, when they close the book, they are left with even a small sense of hope – a feeling that perhaps they, too, might try something new or find the courage to take a step forward – I would be happy.’
Towards Light: A Philosophy of Life and Architecture by Tadao Ando, translated by Polly Barton, is £25 and available to buy from Scribe Publications
