 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.
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