KOSHINO HOUSE DESIGN BY TADAO ANDO
KOSHINO HOUSE DESIGN BY TADAO ANDO
Tadao Ando’s design for the Koshino House
features two parallel concrete rectangular confines. The forms are partially
buried into the sloping ground of a national park and become a compositional
addition to the landscape. Placed carefully as to not disrupt the pre-existing
trees on the site, the structure responds to the adjacent ecosystem while the
concrete forms address a more general nature through a playful manipulation of
light.
The northern volume consists of a two-storey height containing a
double height living room, a kitchen and a dining room on the first floor with
the master bedroom and a study on the second floor. The southern mass then
consists of six linearly organized children’s bedrooms, a bathroom and a lobby.
Connecting the two spaces is a below grade tunnel that lies beneath the
exterior stairs of the courtyard.
Ando used the space within the two rectangular prisms as a way to
express the fundamental nature of the site. This space reveals a courtyard that
drapes over and contours to the natural topography. A wide set of stairs
follows the sloping land into the enclosed exterior space and allows the light
that penetrates through the canopy of trees into the sunken courtyard. This
self-governing space represents the fold of nature that has been bound by the
conditioned structures and become synthetic.
Narrow apertures have been punched through the façades adjacent to
the exterior staircase and manipulate complex crossings of natural light and
shadow into the interior spaces. The patterns provide the only amount of
ornament to the simple rooms. Other slots are cut from various planes of the
two modules to produce the same effect of complexity throughout the entire
house.
Four years after the original construction, Ando designed a new
addition to the compound. Placed to the north of the existing structures, the
new cave-like space rests within the upward sloping piece of land. The study
features a bold curve in contradiction to the rectilinear organization,
initiating a completely new rhythm.
Separate from the original courtyard design, the space between the
addition and the original mass allows nature to remove the forms from each
other. A patch of grass weaves its way between the concrete structures, while
the curved wall extends from the building to define the exterior space. Similar
to the other boxes, a slice of the ceiling plane along the curved wall is
removed to add that bit of complexity and ornamentation to the interior;
however, the curved patterns of light greatly differ from the linear patterns in
the former building.
Architect: Tadao Ando
Location: Ashiya, Hyogo, Japan
Project Year: 1980-1984
References: Yukio Futagawa, WikiArchitectura
Photographs: Gonzalo Perez, Hoiol, Kazunori Fujimoto, Mariana, Simone Catania
Location: Ashiya, Hyogo, Japan
Project Year: 1980-1984
References: Yukio Futagawa, WikiArchitectura
Photographs: Gonzalo Perez, Hoiol, Kazunori Fujimoto, Mariana, Simone Catania
http://www.archdaily.com/161522/ad-classics-koshino-house-tadao-ando/
TADAO ANDO
Tadao Ando, born in 1941 is one of the most renowned contemporary
Japanese architects. Characteristics of his work include large expanses of
unadorned architectural concrete walls combined with wooden or stone floors and
large windows. Active natural elements, like sun, rain, and wind are a
distinctive inclusion to his style. He has designed many notable buildings,
including Row House in Sumiyoshi, Osaka, 1976, which gave him the Annual Prize
of Architectural Institute of Japan in 1979, Church of the Light, Osaka, 1989,
Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis, 2001, Armani Teatro, Milan, 2001,
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 2002 and 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT in Tokyo, 2007.
Among many awards he has received are; Gold Medal of Architecture, Academie
d'Architecture (French Academy of Architecture) in 1989, The Pritzker
Architecture Prize in 1995, Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects
in 2002, and Gold Medal of Union Internationale des Architectes in 2005. Ando
is an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects, the American
Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He
was also a visiting professor at Yale, Columbia, UC Barkley, and Harvard
Universities.
http://www.tadao-ando.com/bio_E.html
