Church of the Light
Tadao Ando
1989-1999
Site plans of the Church of the Light
Situated in the suburban city Ibaraki, 25km outside of Osaka, Japan, along the western foothills of the Yodo Valley, is Tadao Ando’s celebrated Church of the Light. A typical Japanese suburb, Ibaraki is densely populated and teaming with examples of both traditional and modern architecture.
Commissioned by the United Church of Christ in Japan, it sits on the site of a pre-existing Christian compound and acts as the first phase of the complete redesign on the site, finishing in 1999 with the addition of a Sunday School designed in Ando’s aesthetic. (1,2)
Tadao Ando
Tadao Ando was born in Osaka, Japan in 1941. In his childhood, Ando divided his time between working the fields and playing in the streets. In his teen years he enjoyed model making, a skill he learned from the carpenter who lived across the road. It was here that he developed an appreciation for design and the creative arts and gained a greater insight into the intricacies of Japanese joinery.
Ando is a self-taught architect, he apprenticed with a number of designer and city planners in his adolescence. He would travel to Kyoto and Nara to visit temples, shrines and tea houses, experiencing the wealth of architecture that lay at his doorstep. In the 60’s he would travel around the world, to Europe and the United States, to further broaden his understanding of architecture, keeping a detailed sketchbook of his visits.
In 1969 he established his firm, Tadao Ando Architect & Associates in his home city of Osaka. His first commissioned job was a redesign of an old tenement not far from Osaka station for a young couple and their child. Shortly after the construction was finished in 1973, the couple had twins and outgrew the home. Ando bought the home and made it his office. Through many redesigns, this site remains the working studio of Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.
Despite his lack of formal architectural education or degree, Ando has served as a visiting lecturer at Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California at Berkeley, Rice, and University of Pennsylvania, as well as the leading colleges in England, France, and many other countries.
Ando’s work is celebrated globally. His efforts and additions to the world of architecture have gathered for him a wide array of awards and honours. Ando is a recipient of the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize (1979), Japan Art Academy Prize (1993), Pritzker Architecture Prize (1995),International Union of Architects Gold Medal (2005), Shimpei Goto Award (2010), Order of Culture of Japan (2010), Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of Italy (2015) and Isamu Noguchi Award (2016) to name a short few. (3–5)
“In all my works, light is an important controlling factor, I create enclosed spaces mainly by means of thick concrete walls. The primary reason is to create a place for the individual, a zone for oneself within society. When the external factors of a city’s environment require the wall to be without openings, the interior must be especially full and satisfying.”
- Tadao Ando (4)
Interior of the Church of the Light (1)
Ando’s Church of the Light focuses on the principles of simplicity, introspection and minimalism. Compared to the ornate decoration of Western churches, this building can seem bare and unadorned. This was a conscious decision on Ando’s part, so as not to distract from the what is most important at this place – to meet with God.
The form of the main chapel is made up of a stark concrete cuboid, with a shorter concrete wall intersecting through the western façade at a 15° angle, the vestibule. The concrete shell is poured to perfection and, in typical Ando fashion, seems smooth as silk, which Ando owes to the seamlessness of the moulds created by skilled Japanese carpenters. The building feels strong and impregnable, cut off from the outside world, almost as if the interior void has been carved intricately from rock.
The space has a defined route of entry. The circulation is controlled by the penetrating wall to the western side, allowing for a through flow of traffic into the chapel. The doors to the vestibule from the outside and the doors from the vestibule into the chapel are offset, to reduce the light being let into the church from the rear.
The space is almost completely devoid of any fenestration, except for the infamous cruciform on the eastern façade. The cross feels expertly cut from the concrete, as a result of the carpenters’ masterful joinery. The decision to place the cross at the eastern façade allows light to fill the space in the morning and through the day, filling the dark box with a celestial white light. Ando made a decision to allow the light to burst through the building in this way so that when visitors come to the chapel, the divine light and form of the crucifix can still be seen through closed eyes. The eastern light is white and brilliant, dividing the space symmetrically during the early morning mass.
Ando pulls light to the forefront of the design. The technique of lighting that Ando uses in this building fills it with life and gives the concrete box a new meaning. The light tells a story and unifies the churchgoers. In a religious sense, it offers an opportunity for introspection and contemplation, as light is such an important metaphor in the Christian faith. He uses light with an awareness of the client and the viewer.
The light fills the space with a sense of weightlessness. It changes the materiality of the concrete walls and gives them new colour, texture and weight. The only other source of light comes from the cleft at the meeting point of the wall and the ceiling at the injecting western wall, which casts a light shadow over the ceiling above the pews. (1–9)
“Light that, hollowing out darkness and piercing our bodies, blows life into “place”. It was space constructed of such light as this that I sought, for example, in Church of the Light”
- Tadao Ando (9)
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2. Nyawara B. Church of the Light by Tadao Ando | Archute [Internet]. Archute. 2015 [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: https://www.archute.com/church-of-the-light/
3. Ando T. Tadao Ando Architect & Associates [Internet]. Tadao Ando Architect & Associates. 2020 [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: http://www.tadao-ando.com/
4. Lifson E. Tadao Ando, 1995 Laureate Biography. 1995.
5. Griffiths A. Inside the concrete atelier of Japanese architect Tadao Ando [Internet]. The Spaces. 2016 [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: https://thespaces.com/inside-concrete-atelier-japanese-architect-tadao-ando/
6. Fujii N. Naoya Fujii | Flickr [Internet]. Flickr. 2020 [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/naoyafujii/
7. Seligmann A. Tadao ando exhibition endeavours and challenges [Internet]. Vol. 28, Fabrications. Routledge; 2018 [cited 2020 Oct 26]. p. 275–8. Available from: https://www-tandfonline-com.ucd.idm.oclc.org/doi/abs/10.1080/10331867.2018.1437685
8. Baek J. Shintai and the empty cross: Tadao Ando’s Church of the Light. Vol. 14, Architectural Theory Review. 2009. p. 55–70.
9. Baek J. The sublime and the Azuma House by Tadao Ando - ProQuest. Archit Res Q [Internet]. 2004 [cited 2020 Oct 26]; Available from: https://search-proquest-com.ucd.idm.oclc.org/docview/199291229?accountid=14507&pq-origsite=summon
