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Perspectives On 20th Century Architecture: Japan: Three Generations Of Avant-garde Architects - The Six Greatest Japanese Avant-Garde Architects Of Japan's Second Golden Age Of Architecture During The Latter Half Of The 20th Century -- Kazuo Shinohara, Itsuko Hasegawa, Toyo Ito, Fumihiko Maki, Arata Isozaki and Tadao Ando -- As Well As Metabolism, The Post-War Japanese Biomimetic Architectural Movement (Color, 1988, 60 Minutes) PLUS BONUS: PERSPECTIVES ON 20TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE: TADAO ANDO, An Episode Of This Venerable Documentary Series Focused Entirely On The Recipient Of The 1995 Pritzker Architecture Prize ("The Nobel Prize Of Architecture") And The Leading Exponent Of Critical Regionalism Architecture (Color, 1989, 60 Minutes) -- All Presented In The Highest DVD Quality MPG Video Format Of 9.1 MBPS As An MP4 Video Download Or Archival Quality All Regions Format DVD!
*May 15, 2025: Updated And Upgraded: Updated With PERSPECTIVES ON 20TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE: TADAO ANDO, And Upgraded From A Standard Format DVD To An Archival Quality Dual Layer Format DVD!
Japanese Architecture (Japanese: Nihon Kenchiku) has been typified by wooden structures, elevated slightly off the ground, with tiled or thatched roofs. Sliding doors (fusuma) and other traditional partitions were used in place of walls, allowing the internal configuration of a space to be customized for different occasions. People usually sat on cushions or otherwise on the floor, traditionally; chairs and high tables were not widely used until the 20th century. Since the 19th century, however, Japan has incorporated much of Western, modern, and post-modern architecture into construction and design, and is today a leader in cutting-edge architectural design and technology. The earliest Japanese architecture was seen in prehistoric times in simple pit-houses and stores adapted to the needs of a hunter-gatherer population. Influence from Han dynasty China via Korea saw the introduction of more complex grain stores and ceremonial burial chambers. The introduction of Buddhism in Japan during the sixth century was a catalyst for large-scale temple building using complicated techniques in wood. Influence from the Chinese Sui and Tang dynasties led to the foundation of the first permanent capital in Nara. Its checkerboard street layout used the Chinese capital of Chang'an as a template for its design. In 894 during the Heian period (794-1185), Japan abolished kentoshi (Japanese missions to Tang China) and began to distance itself from Chinese culture, and a culture called Kokufu bunka (lit., Japanese culture) which was suited to the Japanese climate and aesthetic sense flourished. The shinden-zukuri style, which was the architectural style of the residences of nobles in this period, showed the distinct uniqueness of Japanese architecture and permanently determined the characteristics of later Japanese architecture. Its features are an open structure with few walls that can be opened and closed with doors, shitomi and sudare, a structure in which shoes are taken off to enter the house on stilts, and sitting or sleeping directly on tatami mats without using chairs and beds. As the samurai class gained power in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), the shinden-zukuri style changed, and in the Muromachi period (1333-1573), the shoin-zukuri style appeared. This style had a lasting influence on later Japanese architectural styles and became the basis of modern Japanese houses. Its characteristics were that sliding doors called fusuma and paper windows called shoji were fully adopted, and tatami mats were laid all over the room. The introduction of the tea ceremony emphasised simplicity and modest design as a counterpoint to the excesses of the aristocracy. In the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600), sukiya-zukuri style villas appeared under the influence of a tea house called chashitsu. At first it was an architectural style for the villas of daimyo (Japanese feudal lords) and court nobles, but in the Edo period (1683-1807) it was applied to ryotei (Japanese-style restaurants) and chashitsu, and later it was also applied to residences. During the Meiji Restoration of 1869 the history of Japanese architecture was radically changed by two important events. The first was the Kami and Buddhas Separation Act of 1868, which formally separated Buddhism from Shinto and Buddhist temples from Shinto shrines, breaking an association between the two which had lasted well over a thousand years. Secondly, it was then that Japan underwent a period of intense Westernization in order to compete with other developed countries. Initially, architects and styles from abroad were imported to Japan, but gradually the country taught its own architects and began to express its own style. Architects returning from study with Western architects introduced the International Style of modernism into Japan. However, it was not until after the Second World War that Japanese architects made an impression on the international scene, firstly with the work of architects like Kenzo Tange and then with theoretical movements, like Metabolism.
Metabolism (Japanese: Metaborizumu, Ahinchintaisha) was a post-war Japanese biomimetic architectural movement that fused ideas about architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth. It had its first international exposure during CIAM's 1959 meeting and its ideas were tentatively tested by students from Kenzo Tange's MIT studio. During the preparation for the 1960 Tokyo World Design Conference a group of young architects and designers, including Kiyonori Kikutake, Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki prepared the publication of the Metabolism manifesto. They were influenced by a wide variety of sources including Marxist theories and biological processes. Their manifesto was a series of four essays entitled: Ocean City, Space City, Towards Group Form, and Material and Man, and it also included designs for vast cities that floated on the oceans and plug-in capsule towers that could incorporate organic growth. Although the World Design Conference gave the Metabolists exposure on the international stage, their ideas remained largely theoretical. Some smaller, individual buildings that employed the principles of Metabolism were built and these included Tange's Yamanashi Press and Broadcaster Centre and Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower. The greatest concentration of their work was to be found at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka where Tange was responsible for master planning the whole site whilst Kikutake and Kurokawa designed pavilions. After the 1973 Oil Crisis, the Metabolists turned their attention away from Japan and toward Africa and the Middle East.
Biomimetic Architecture is a branch of the new science of biomimicry defined and popularized by Janine Benyus in her 1997 book (Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature). Biomimicry (bios - life and mimesis - imitate) refers to innovations inspired by nature as one which studies nature and then imitates or takes inspiration from its designs and processes to solve human problems. The book suggests looking at nature as a Model, Measure, and Mentor", suggesting that the main aim of biomimicry is sustainability. Living beings have adapted to a constantly changing environment during evolution through mutation, recombination, and selection. The core idea of the biomimetic philosophy is that nature's inhabitants including animals, plants, and microbes have the most experience in solving problems and have already found the most appropriate ways to last on planet Earth. Similarly, biomimetic architecture seeks solutions for building sustainability present in nature, not only by replicating their natural forms, but also by understanding the rules governing those forms. The 21st century has seen a ubiquitous waste of energy due to inefficient building designs, in addition to the over-utilization of energy during the operational phase of its life cycle. In parallel, recent advancements in fabrication techniques, computational imaging, and simulation tools have opened up new possibilities to mimic nature across different architectural scales. As a result, there has been a rapid growth in devising innovative design approaches and solutions to counter energy problems. Biomimetic architecture is one of these multi-disciplinary approaches to sustainable design that follows a set of principles rather than stylistic codes, going beyond using nature as inspiration for the aesthetic components of built form, but instead seeking to use nature to solve problems of the building's functioning and saving energy.
Tadao Ando (b. September 13 1941) is a Japanese autodidact (self-educated) architect whose approach to architecture and landscape was defined by architectural historian Francesco Dal Co as "critical regionalism", an approach to architecture that strives to counter the placelessness and lack of identity of the International Style, but also rejects the whimsical individualism and ornamentation of Postmodern architecture. He is the recipient of the 1995 The Pritzker Architecture Prize, an international award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture." Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation. It is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes, and is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. Tadao Ando was born Ando Tadao a few minutes before his twin brother in 1941 in Minato-ku, Osaka, Japan. At the age of two, his family chose to separate them and have Tadao live with his great-grandmother. He worked as a boxer and fighter before settling on the profession of architect, despite never having formal training in the field. Struck by the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Imperial Hotel on a trip to Tokyo as a second-year high school student, he eventually decided to end his boxing career less than two years after graduating from high school to pursue architecture. He attended night classes to learn drawing and took correspondence courses on interior design. He visited buildings designed by renowned architects like Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Louis Kahn before returning to Osaka in 1968 to establish his own design studio, Tadao Ando Architects and Associates. Ando was raised in Japan where the religion and style of life strongly influenced his architecture and design. Ando's architectural style is said to create a "haiku" effect, emphasizing nothingness and empty space to represent the beauty of simplicity. He favors designing complex spatial circulation while maintaining the appearance of simplicity. A self-taught architect, he keeps his Japanese culture and language in mind while he travels around Europe for research. As an architect, he believes that architecture can change society, that "to change the dwelling is to change the city and to reform society". "Reform society" could be a promotion of a place or a change of the identity of that place. Werner Blaser has said, "Good buildings by Tadao Ando create memorable identity and therefore publicity, which in turn attracts the public and promotes market penetration". The simplicity of his architecture emphasizes the concept of sensation and physical experiences, mainly influenced by Japanese culture. The religious term Zen, focuses on the concept of simplicity and concentrates on inner feeling rather than outward appearance. Zen influences vividly show in Ando's work and became its distinguishing mark. In order to practice the idea of simplicity, Ando's architecture is mostly constructed with concrete, providing a sense of cleanliness and weightlessness (even though concrete is a heavy material) at the same time. Due to the simplicity of the exterior, construction, and organization of the space are relatively potential in order to represent the aesthetic of sensation. Besides Japanese religious architecture, Ando has also designed Christian churches, such as the Church of the Light (1989) and the Church in Tarumi (1993). Although Japanese and Christian churches display distinct characteristics, Ando treats them in a similar way. He believes there should be no difference in designing religious architecture and houses. As he explains, "We do not need to differentiate one from the other. Dwelling in a house is not only a functional issue, but also a spiritual one. The house is the locus of heart (kokoro), and the heart is the locus of god. Dwelling in a house is a search for the heart (kokoro) as the locus of god, just as one goes to church to search for god. An important role of the church is to enhance this sense of the spiritual. In a spiritual place, people find peace in their heart (kokoro), as in their homeland." Besides speaking of the spirit of architecture, Ando also emphasises the association between nature and architecture. He intends for people to easily experience the spirit and beauty of nature through architecture. He believes architecture is responsible for performing the attitude of the site and makes it visible. This not only represents his theory of the role of architecture in society but also shows why he spends so much time studying architecture from physical experience. In 1995, Ando won the Pritzker Prize for architecture, considered the highest distinction in the field. He donated the 100K USD prize money to the orphans of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Tadao Ando's body of work is known for the creative use of natural light and for structures that follow natural forms of the landscape, rather than disturbing the landscape by making it conform to the constructed space of a building. Ando's buildings are often characterized by complex three-dimensional circulation paths. These paths weave in between interior and exterior spaces formed both inside large-scale geometric shapes and in the spaces between them. His "Row House in Sumiyoshi" (Azuma House), a small two-story, cast-in-place concrete house completed in 1976, is an early work which began to show elements of his characteristic style. It consists of three equal rectangular volumes: two enclosed volumes of interior spaces separated by an open courtyard. The courtyard's position between the two interior volumes becomes an integral part of the house's circulation system. The house is famous for the contrast between appearance and spatial organization which allow people to experience the richness of the space within the geometry. Ando's housing complex at Rokko, just outside Kobe, is a complex warren of terraces and balconies, atriums and shafts. The designs for Rokko Housing One (1983) and for Rokko Housing Two (1993) illustrate a range of issues in traditional architectural vocabulary-the interplay of solid and void, the alternatives of open and closed, the contrasts of light and darkness. More significantly, Ando's noteworthy engineering achievement in these clustered buildings is site specific-the structures survived undamaged after the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995. New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger argues that "Ando is right in the Japanese tradition: spareness has always been a part of Japanese architecture, at least since the 16th century; it is not without reason that Frank Lloyd Wright more freely admitted to the influences of Japanese architecture than of anything American." Unlike the architect Auguste Perret, who pioneered the use of reinforced concrete, Ando used shuttering formwork to give concrete building elements their shape. The finished Ando building bears the memory of wood texture. The smoothness of the concrete is achieved by the careful preparation of the casting moulds. Ando buildings are credited with the interior design use of exposed concrete. The use of prominent beams is perceived to be rooted in Japanese architectural history. The Rokko apartments and the Church of the Light earned Ando international recognition and he was noted by those who detect a regional quality in concrete construction. In 2003, Ando was commissioned by soap opera heir William Bell, Jr. and his wife Maria to design a house for an almost 6-acre (2.4 ha) oceanfront site on the East Pacific Coast Highway in the Paradise Cove area of Malibu, California. The house (designed with WHY Architects) is a 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) modernist concrete structure in an L shape, with six bedrooms and walls of glass. It has been described as minimalist and "echoey". Construction completed in 2014, being prolonged due to the oceanfront location, soft soil, and California's extensive building codes. 7,645 cubic yards of unusually high quality concrete were used in the construction of the house, with its rebar specially treated to resist corrosion. The installation of the concrete in the driveway, garage, and parking areas in 2015 won an award for precision from the American Concrete Institute. Ando also designed a series of furniture pieces for the interior. In May 2023, couple Beyonce and Jay-Z purchased the house through a trust for 200M USD. It was the most expensive single-family home sold in the United States in 2023. and surpassed California's previous record price for a residence, set by businessman Marc Andreessen in 2021 for the adjacent house.
Perspectives On 20th Century Architecture: Japan: Three Generations Of Avant-garde Architects - The Six Greatest Japanese Avant-Garde Architects Of Japan's Second Golden Age Of Architecture During The Latter Half Of The 20th Century -- Kazuo Shinohara, Itsuko Hasegawa, Toyo Ito, Fumihiko Maki, Arata Isozaki and Tadao Ando -- As Well As Metabolism, The Post-War Japanese Biomimetic Architectural Movement (Color, 1988, 60 Minutes) PLUS BONUS: PERSPECTIVES ON 20TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE: TADAO ANDO, An Episode Of This Venerable Documentary Series Focused Entirely On The Recipient Of The 1995 Pritzker Architecture Prize ("The Nobel Prize Of Architecture") And The Leading Exponent Of Critical Regionalism Architecture (Color, 1989, 60 Minutes) -- All Presented In The Highest DVD Quality MPG Video Format Of 9.1 MBPS As An MP4 Video Download Or Archival Quality All Regions Format DVD!
*May 15, 2025: Updated And Upgraded: Updated With PERSPECTIVES ON 20TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE: TADAO ANDO, And Upgraded From A Standard Format DVD To An Archival Quality Dual Layer Format DVD!
Japanese Architecture (Japanese: Nihon Kenchiku) has been typified by wooden structures, elevated slightly off the ground, with tiled or thatched roofs. Sliding doors (fusuma) and other traditional partitions were used in place of walls, allowing the internal configuration of a space to be customized for different occasions. People usually sat on cushions or otherwise on the floor, traditionally; chairs and high tables were not widely used until the 20th century. Since the 19th century, however, Japan has incorporated much of Western, modern, and post-modern architecture into construction and design, and is today a leader in cutting-edge architectural design and technology. The earliest Japanese architecture was seen in prehistoric times in simple pit-houses and stores adapted to the needs of a hunter-gatherer population. Influence from Han dynasty China via Korea saw the introduction of more complex grain stores and ceremonial burial chambers. The introduction of Buddhism in Japan during the sixth century was a catalyst for large-scale temple building using complicated techniques in wood. Influence from the Chinese Sui and Tang dynasties led to the foundation of the first permanent capital in Nara. Its checkerboard street layout used the Chinese capital of Chang'an as a template for its design. In 894 during the Heian period (794-1185), Japan abolished kentoshi (Japanese missions to Tang China) and began to distance itself from Chinese culture, and a culture called Kokufu bunka (lit., Japanese culture) which was suited to the Japanese climate and aesthetic sense flourished. The shinden-zukuri style, which was the architectural style of the residences of nobles in this period, showed the distinct uniqueness of Japanese architecture and permanently determined the characteristics of later Japanese architecture. Its features are an open structure with few walls that can be opened and closed with doors, shitomi and sudare, a structure in which shoes are taken off to enter the house on stilts, and sitting or sleeping directly on tatami mats without using chairs and beds. As the samurai class gained power in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), the shinden-zukuri style changed, and in the Muromachi period (1333-1573), the shoin-zukuri style appeared. This style had a lasting influence on later Japanese architectural styles and became the basis of modern Japanese houses. Its characteristics were that sliding doors called fusuma and paper windows called shoji were fully adopted, and tatami mats were laid all over the room. The introduction of the tea ceremony emphasised simplicity and modest design as a counterpoint to the excesses of the aristocracy. In the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600), sukiya-zukuri style villas appeared under the influence of a tea house called chashitsu. At first it was an architectural style for the villas of daimyo (Japanese feudal lords) and court nobles, but in the Edo period (1683-1807) it was applied to ryotei (Japanese-style restaurants) and chashitsu, and later it was also applied to residences. During the Meiji Restoration of 1869 the history of Japanese architecture was radically changed by two important events. The first was the Kami and Buddhas Separation Act of 1868, which formally separated Buddhism from Shinto and Buddhist temples from Shinto shrines, breaking an association between the two which had lasted well over a thousand years. Secondly, it was then that Japan underwent a period of intense Westernization in order to compete with other developed countries. Initially, architects and styles from abroad were imported to Japan, but gradually the country taught its own architects and began to express its own style. Architects returning from study with Western architects introduced the International Style of modernism into Japan. However, it was not until after the Second World War that Japanese architects made an impression on the international scene, firstly with the work of architects like Kenzo Tange and then with theoretical movements, like Metabolism.
Metabolism (Japanese: Metaborizumu, Ahinchintaisha) was a post-war Japanese biomimetic architectural movement that fused ideas about architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth. It had its first international exposure during CIAM's 1959 meeting and its ideas were tentatively tested by students from Kenzo Tange's MIT studio. During the preparation for the 1960 Tokyo World Design Conference a group of young architects and designers, including Kiyonori Kikutake, Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki prepared the publication of the Metabolism manifesto. They were influenced by a wide variety of sources including Marxist theories and biological processes. Their manifesto was a series of four essays entitled: Ocean City, Space City, Towards Group Form, and Material and Man, and it also included designs for vast cities that floated on the oceans and plug-in capsule towers that could incorporate organic growth. Although the World Design Conference gave the Metabolists exposure on the international stage, their ideas remained largely theoretical. Some smaller, individual buildings that employed the principles of Metabolism were built and these included Tange's Yamanashi Press and Broadcaster Centre and Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower. The greatest concentration of their work was to be found at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka where Tange was responsible for master planning the whole site whilst Kikutake and Kurokawa designed pavilions. After the 1973 Oil Crisis, the Metabolists turned their attention away from Japan and toward Africa and the Middle East.
Biomimetic Architecture is a branch of the new science of biomimicry defined and popularized by Janine Benyus in her 1997 book (Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature). Biomimicry (bios - life and mimesis - imitate) refers to innovations inspired by nature as one which studies nature and then imitates or takes inspiration from its designs and processes to solve human problems. The book suggests looking at nature as a Model, Measure, and Mentor", suggesting that the main aim of biomimicry is sustainability. Living beings have adapted to a constantly changing environment during evolution through mutation, recombination, and selection. The core idea of the biomimetic philosophy is that nature's inhabitants including animals, plants, and microbes have the most experience in solving problems and have already found the most appropriate ways to last on planet Earth. Similarly, biomimetic architecture seeks solutions for building sustainability present in nature, not only by replicating their natural forms, but also by understanding the rules governing those forms. The 21st century has seen a ubiquitous waste of energy due to inefficient building designs, in addition to the over-utilization of energy during the operational phase of its life cycle. In parallel, recent advancements in fabrication techniques, computational imaging, and simulation tools have opened up new possibilities to mimic nature across different architectural scales. As a result, there has been a rapid growth in devising innovative design approaches and solutions to counter energy problems. Biomimetic architecture is one of these multi-disciplinary approaches to sustainable design that follows a set of principles rather than stylistic codes, going beyond using nature as inspiration for the aesthetic components of built form, but instead seeking to use nature to solve problems of the building's functioning and saving energy.
Tadao Ando (b. September 13 1941) is a Japanese autodidact (self-educated) architect whose approach to architecture and landscape was defined by architectural historian Francesco Dal Co as "critical regionalism", an approach to architecture that strives to counter the placelessness and lack of identity of the International Style, but also rejects the whimsical individualism and ornamentation of Postmodern architecture. He is the recipient of the 1995 The Pritzker Architecture Prize, an international award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture." Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation. It is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes, and is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. Tadao Ando was born Ando Tadao a few minutes before his twin brother in 1941 in Minato-ku, Osaka, Japan. At the age of two, his family chose to separate them and have Tadao live with his great-grandmother. He worked as a boxer and fighter before settling on the profession of architect, despite never having formal training in the field. Struck by the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Imperial Hotel on a trip to Tokyo as a second-year high school student, he eventually decided to end his boxing career less than two years after graduating from high school to pursue architecture. He attended night classes to learn drawing and took correspondence courses on interior design. He visited buildings designed by renowned architects like Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Louis Kahn before returning to Osaka in 1968 to establish his own design studio, Tadao Ando Architects and Associates. Ando was raised in Japan where the religion and style of life strongly influenced his architecture and design. Ando's architectural style is said to create a "haiku" effect, emphasizing nothingness and empty space to represent the beauty of simplicity. He favors designing complex spatial circulation while maintaining the appearance of simplicity. A self-taught architect, he keeps his Japanese culture and language in mind while he travels around Europe for research. As an architect, he believes that architecture can change society, that "to change the dwelling is to change the city and to reform society". "Reform society" could be a promotion of a place or a change of the identity of that place. Werner Blaser has said, "Good buildings by Tadao Ando create memorable identity and therefore publicity, which in turn attracts the public and promotes market penetration". The simplicity of his architecture emphasizes the concept of sensation and physical experiences, mainly influenced by Japanese culture. The religious term Zen, focuses on the concept of simplicity and concentrates on inner feeling rather than outward appearance. Zen influences vividly show in Ando's work and became its distinguishing mark. In order to practice the idea of simplicity, Ando's architecture is mostly constructed with concrete, providing a sense of cleanliness and weightlessness (even though concrete is a heavy material) at the same time. Due to the simplicity of the exterior, construction, and organization of the space are relatively potential in order to represent the aesthetic of sensation. Besides Japanese religious architecture, Ando has also designed Christian churches, such as the Church of the Light (1989) and the Church in Tarumi (1993). Although Japanese and Christian churches display distinct characteristics, Ando treats them in a similar way. He believes there should be no difference in designing religious architecture and houses. As he explains, "We do not need to differentiate one from the other. Dwelling in a house is not only a functional issue, but also a spiritual one. The house is the locus of heart (kokoro), and the heart is the locus of god. Dwelling in a house is a search for the heart (kokoro) as the locus of god, just as one goes to church to search for god. An important role of the church is to enhance this sense of the spiritual. In a spiritual place, people find peace in their heart (kokoro), as in their homeland." Besides speaking of the spirit of architecture, Ando also emphasises the association between nature and architecture. He intends for people to easily experience the spirit and beauty of nature through architecture. He believes architecture is responsible for performing the attitude of the site and makes it visible. This not only represents his theory of the role of architecture in society but also shows why he spends so much time studying architecture from physical experience. In 1995, Ando won the Pritzker Prize for architecture, considered the highest distinction in the field. He donated the 100K USD prize money to the orphans of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Tadao Ando's body of work is known for the creative use of natural light and for structures that follow natural forms of the landscape, rather than disturbing the landscape by making it conform to the constructed space of a building. Ando's buildings are often characterized by complex three-dimensional circulation paths. These paths weave in between interior and exterior spaces formed both inside large-scale geometric shapes and in the spaces between them. His "Row House in Sumiyoshi" (Azuma House), a small two-story, cast-in-place concrete house completed in 1976, is an early work which began to show elements of his characteristic style. It consists of three equal rectangular volumes: two enclosed volumes of interior spaces separated by an open courtyard. The courtyard's position between the two interior volumes becomes an integral part of the house's circulation system. The house is famous for the contrast between appearance and spatial organization which allow people to experience the richness of the space within the geometry. Ando's housing complex at Rokko, just outside Kobe, is a complex warren of terraces and balconies, atriums and shafts. The designs for Rokko Housing One (1983) and for Rokko Housing Two (1993) illustrate a range of issues in traditional architectural vocabulary-the interplay of solid and void, the alternatives of open and closed, the contrasts of light and darkness. More significantly, Ando's noteworthy engineering achievement in these clustered buildings is site specific-the structures survived undamaged after the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995. New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger argues that "Ando is right in the Japanese tradition: spareness has always been a part of Japanese architecture, at least since the 16th century; it is not without reason that Frank Lloyd Wright more freely admitted to the influences of Japanese architecture than of anything American." Unlike the architect Auguste Perret, who pioneered the use of reinforced concrete, Ando used shuttering formwork to give concrete building elements their shape. The finished Ando building bears the memory of wood texture. The smoothness of the concrete is achieved by the careful preparation of the casting moulds. Ando buildings are credited with the interior design use of exposed concrete. The use of prominent beams is perceived to be rooted in Japanese architectural history. The Rokko apartments and the Church of the Light earned Ando international recognition and he was noted by those who detect a regional quality in concrete construction. In 2003, Ando was commissioned by soap opera heir William Bell, Jr. and his wife Maria to design a house for an almost 6-acre (2.4 ha) oceanfront site on the East Pacific Coast Highway in the Paradise Cove area of Malibu, California. The house (designed with WHY Architects) is a 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) modernist concrete structure in an L shape, with six bedrooms and walls of glass. It has been described as minimalist and "echoey". Construction completed in 2014, being prolonged due to the oceanfront location, soft soil, and California's extensive building codes. 7,645 cubic yards of unusually high quality concrete were used in the construction of the house, with its rebar specially treated to resist corrosion. The installation of the concrete in the driveway, garage, and parking areas in 2015 won an award for precision from the American Concrete Institute. Ando also designed a series of furniture pieces for the interior. In May 2023, couple Beyonce and Jay-Z purchased the house through a trust for 200M USD. It was the most expensive single-family home sold in the United States in 2023. and surpassed California's previous record price for a residence, set by businessman Marc Andreessen in 2021 for the adjacent house.