Tadao Ando is a self-taught architect, whose architectural style is said to create a “haiku” effect. For instance, he emphasizes in nothingness and empty spaces to represent the beauty of simplicity.

He draws a sense of depth and richness through the use of shadows, aiding himself with the use of solid materials and his knowledge of the tension that defines transitions and boundaries; producing clean and defined compositions.

Japanese architecture has been using shadow for centuries by filtering light through permeable and porous constructions or materials. In Zen Buddhism, it is at the interface of light and shadow that space comes into being.

 

Tadao Ando architecture

“ We find beauty not in the things itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates.”
-In Praise of Shadows

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