The minimalist concrete architecture of Tadao Ando has roots both in Japanese traditions and in Western architecture. This book begins with both contexts: it explores how Ando unites Japanese tradition with a contemporary Western architectural idiom.

By analyzing systematically and chronologically the roots and sources that have influenced the thinking of the Pritzker Prize–winning architect, the author communicates the principles and constants to which Ando’s buildings can be traced back, and at the same time he places them in the appropriate context within the architect’s characteristic ideas and intentions.

The minimalist concrete architecture of Tadao Ando has roots both in Japanese traditions and in Western architecture. This book begins with both contexts: it explores how Ando unites Japanese tradition with a contemporary Western architectural idiom.

By analyzing systematically and chronologically the roots and sources that have influenced the thinking of the Pritzker Prize–winning architect, the author communicates the principles and constants to which Ando’s buildings can be traced back, and at the same time he places them in the appropriate context within the architect’s characteristic ideas and intentions.

Yann Nussaume teaches at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’architecture in Paris and is the author of numerous publications on Japanese and Chinese architecture.