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Developing and Changing Responses to
Light in Tadao Andos Three Religion
Works.
Content
1. Introduction.
1.1 Why it is interesting to look into the responses to light in Andos works.
1.2 Chapel on the Mt. Rokko
1.3 Church on the water
1.4 Church of the light
2. Analysis and comparison of Andos responses to light among these three projects
3. Conclusion.
1. Introduction
Looking into Tadao Andos works, light, concrete and the Japanese traditional spirit which is
transformed by his space design are the three points which are mentioned frequently. Concrete
walls shape his architectures form and create space, while light filters into the space and is
projected on the wall to transform the immaterial Japanese spirit into visible. Since the 1970s,
Ando has been famous of his response to light in his design from Row house and gradually
developing his particular way to design the light inside space. I am very interested in the various
design of nature light in architecture, so I choose to observe and compare Andos 3 religious
works to try to find out and learn how Ando made responses to light in these designs and how
these responses developed and changed.
Based on Philip Drews book, all 3 works I chose were designed between 1985 and 1989, which
are the Chapel on Mount Rokko in 1985-1986, the Church on the Water in 1988 and the Church of
the Light in 1989. 1 The reasons why I choose these works are that firstly the sizes of the projects
are quite similar and their areas are not too big like museums or offices. Secondly, these projects
were designed by Ando in continual 5 years, so the connection and continuity among them
should be easier and better for me to observe than other projects. Besides, different from
houses or commerce buildings, religious buildings always have high requests for nature light
design, which may provide me a good angel to discover Andos development of his skills.
Background of three projects
1
Philip Drew, Church on the Water Church of the Light, (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1996), p.7.
2
Tadao Ando, Chapel on Mt. Rokko, The Japanese Architecture, vol.354 (1986), p.11
3
Drew, Church on the Water Church of the light, p.10
frame on the north wall, through which visitors can see a slope of grass and a freestanding
concrete wall. But, there are two invisible narrow windows on the eastern and western end of
roof, which allow the sunlight to filter into the chapel. The skylight on the east end of chapel
baths on the surface of concrete wall, in front of which is the priests lectern, immensely
increasing holy feeling of this space. While the calm view from the north walls window connects
people inside with the nature outside and reminds adherent of the secular world at the same
time.
As it is mentioned in Jin Beaks book: In the Church on the Water, whose primary function is
a venue for wedding ceremonies.4, Church on the Water is a chapel which specially provides
service for marriage. The site of it is a large open area in front of a famous hotel and surrounded
by wonderful nature view. It is composed of two square boxes which overlap at one corner, a
large area plain pond and an L shape freestanding concrete wall in the southwest of church. In
fact, one of the two square boxes is the concrete church, one of whose walls is open toward the
pond and form the most famous part of this church, which is Letting the cross sit in the middle
of nature and be perceived from the inside through an open front wall5. The other is a glass
cube. Different from the concrete church, Ando placed four crosses on the top floor of this glass
cube where visitors can feel the totally open to nature and bath in the sunshine. In this project,
Ando used a simple way to make the response to light- the comparison between darkness and
brightness; and the comparison between direction and directionless of light, which I would like
to talk more lately.
4
Drew, Church on the Water Church of the light, p.15
5
Jin Beak, Nothingness: Tadao Andos Christian Scared Space, (Great Britain: Routledge,2009), p.103
Church of the Light
2. Analysis and comparison of Andos responses to light among these three projects
6
Drew, Church on the Water Church of the light, p.10
7
Drew, Church on the Water Church of the light, p.10
environment, from where the sea of Osaka can be seen. This good advantage should inspire
Andos desire for an open colonnade and a large window for the chapel, so there is the window
on the north wall. Because the scared space cant be exposed directly under the light and too
bright, so there is only one window on the standing walls. Although the north window can
provide a view of outside, it cant be used to shape the holy feeling of chapel. Andos experience
of visiting European churches must provide him some clues about how to sculpture a scared
place by the top light from the roof. He chose
to open a small window on the roof then the
sunshine can bath the rough surface of
concrete wall and reflect into the space which
emphasize the importance of lectern and
shape the mood of this chapel. I have to say
that this is a very clever and simple way for
light design in religious building.
In the Church on the Water, design follows a very clear logic which is to lead visitors sight to
move from inside of the church to the cross standing on the pond. Function of this churchs
window, which meets the requirement of basic light for space and creates the scared mood for
the church at the same time, is simpler than the windows in the Chapel on the Mt. Rokko.
Besides, in my opinion, the function of this church on the water is for marriage ceremony, which
may be the other important factor leading to Andos response to the light. The rite of marriage
requests romantic mood and is different from request of darkness for the rite of meditation and
prayer, so Ando can design the whole glass wall in this church. The cross is a little bit far, so its
shadow cant reach the church or influence light inside the church, which keep the cross so pure
that it looks like eternal without change of light and shadow. Meanwhile, in the other part of this
church, the glass cube, Ando places
four crosses close in front of four
glass windows. Visitors can
experience the infinite of light and
holy spirit through the crosses into
the site beyond. This appropriately
solves the problem of limitation of
sight in the Chapel on the Mt.
Rokko.
However, in the
Church of Light, I think
Ando has improved his
logic and skill of
designing light into a
higher place.
8
Drew, Church on the Water Church of the light, p.15
Like Jin Beak said in his book:
Ando took a different approach
(from the Church on the Water.)
Instead of opening up the front
wall entirely, he rendered it
solid and then pierced it to
carve a cross setting deftly
between the inside and the
outside. 9 There is only one
expressive comparison here
which is between the large
areas of darkness and the small
Figure 9: Church of the Light and Church on the Water.
areas of brightness. The light
filtering into the dark space through the concrete wall not just forms a symbol of cross but define
the spaces internal spirit of holy spirit. The meaning beneath the light of it is the most intuitional
among these three projects. Once visitors enter it, they can feel the existence of scared space
strongly and wonder what is beyond the light cross which may guide them to pursue the further
religious questions.
The cross of light, the cross-shaped opening at one end becomes the door to the world
above, through which the gods can descend to earth
and man can symbolically ascend to heaven.10
3. Conclusion
To sum up, I find that there is the continuity in the response of light among these three
projects. Although the design logic, skill and further meaning beyond the design is changing and
developing among them based on different special design limitations, light is always the
unchangeable point which Ando follows and utilizes among these works. I think this is the main
why I always admire his works and prefer to learn the skill of designing light from him. To the end
of this essay, I would like to use Henry Plummers words to demonstrate what I think of light.
9
Beak, Nothingness: Tadao Andos Christian Scared Space, p.103-p.107
10
Drew, Church on the Water Church of the light, p.11
11
Henry Plummer, Poetics of Light, Architecture and Urbanism, 12 (1987), 5.
Bibliography
Ando, Tadao, Chapel on Mt. Rokko, The Japanese Architecture, vol.354 (1986)
Beak, Jin, Nothingness: Tadao Andos Christian Scared Space, (Great Britain: Routledge,2009)
Drew, Philip, Church on the Water Church of the Light, (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1996)
Pare, Richard, Tadao Ando The Colours of Light, (China: Phaidon Press Limited, 2000)
Suzuki, Daisetz T, Zen And Japanese Culture, (USA: Routledge And Kegan Paul Ltd, 1959)