Tadao Ando

Born in Osaka in 1941, he established Tadao Ando Architect & Associates in 1969. He was named a Pritzker Prize Laureate in 1995. Largely self-taught, he is influenced by Japanese culture, which he appreciates for its beauty of simplicity and aesthetics of sensation. His trademark as an architect is the play of light on “smooth-and-silk” finished concrete walls as well as unity with nature. His major works include the Church of the Light, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, and the Chichu Art Museum. He has received various international prizes and awards and held solo exhibitions at MoMA and Centre Pompidou, and professorial chairs at leading universities.