A Comparative Analysis of Tadao Ando's Koshino and Kidosaki Houses

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of two architectural projects by Tadao Ando: the Koshino House and the Kidosaki House. It delves into the development of Ando's architectural style, comparing and contrasting his approach to planning, site context, space, materials (particularly concrete), and the influence of culture and theory. The essay examines the differences and potential motivations behind the shifts in Ando's design choices, considering how historical and theoretical themes underpin his work. It also explores how theorists and historians have interpreted Ando's architecture, influencing its reception over time. The analysis includes discussions on geometry, nature, and substance as key characteristics of Ando's work, as well as the impact of light and space on the overall design. The essay references scholarly works and incorporates relevant images to illustrate the concepts discussed, providing a detailed understanding of Ando's architectural evolution.

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ARCHITECTURE
By Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Location
Date

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TADAO ANDO TWO PROJECTS
Introduction
Tadao Ando was born in 1941 and he was the Pritzker award winner in 1995.He is very famous
for his unparalleled work which is done with sensitive treatment of the natural light, concrete and
the engagement with nature. Tadao Ando was raised and based in Osaka Japan. Before
embarking on serious architecture training, Tadao Ando worked briefly as a professional boxer
and a truck driver. Most of his training was based on the night classes, regular visits to global
iconic buildings and apprenticeships. Tadao Ando opened his first office in Osaka in 1969 and he
achieved fame very fast within Australia and other parts of the world. In early 1979, the
architectural institute of Japan awarded Tadao Ando for his exemplary work in building a row
house in Sumiyoshi.1
Tadao Ando’s mastery of space, nature and light catapulted him into the global stage in the early
1980s.It was in the latter of this decade that Tadao Ando completed his two most iconic designs
that is the Church on the water and that of the light. Tadao and has been playing a very active
role in the social contributions projects that are focused on the post-disaster reconstruction and
the projects focused on the environmental restoration. This paper focuses mainly on analyzing
two projects done by Tadao Ando and come up with the differences and try to discusses what
cause the shift.
Theta Dao Ando style
1Gill, S. S. (2010). A study of the characteristics of natural light in selected buildings designed
by

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According to the observations that have been made by various researchers it is clear that there
are three main characteristics in all works of Tadao Ando and they are;
1. Geometry
2. Nature
3. Substance
The geometry that is seen in all his creation is the shapes which Tadao Ando applies to develop
habitable spaces. The nature witnessed refers to usage of trees, ponds, light, courtyards among
other in all his creations and developing a pleasant stability between the elements and the
structure mentioned above.2 Tadao Ando has signature substance which he uses in all buildings
mainly reinforced concrete other than the use of glass, steel and wood.
The Laureate biography 1995 by Tadao Ando shows how Tadao uses watertight and smooth
shuttering to generate concrete slabs. Thus, by using these two ideas the end result is mainly
centered on the molds instead of the mix itself. The shuttering used is usually seized together by
bolts which creates an imprinted hole that can be clearly seen on the slabs3
Kidosaki house
This housed was mainly constructed as a residential house for three families i.e. a newlywed
family together with their parents. Which saw each family settling on an individual floor? The
house is located in Satagaya in Japan. The chief concept which was behind the design of this
house was to build a house that was able to keep each house and family independent. The whole
2Bergmann, S. (2017). God in context: A survey of contextual theology. Routledge
3SHIRAZI, M. R. (2012). An Investigation on Tadao Ando’s phenomenological reflections

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house is made up of 12m cube at the middle of the site and there is a curved wall close to the
entrance.
The owner of the house being an architect offered Tadao Ando an opportunity to design for him
this particular residential building. By respecting the conditions, he was given in the brief of this
house; Tadao designed the house to have independent interiors, which was to offer privacy from
each other but the outcome was a combined structure from the outside4.
The house is constructed of reinforced concrete which is made around a steel frame and all the
floor surfaces in this house are finished with treated wood. Key is also another key construction
material in this house. The glass is mainly used in making windows and skylights to direct light
into the structure5.The usage of glass as a construction material in this house was due to the
pleasant appearance of the glass and the fact that glass is among the lightweight construction
material.
Context
4Botz-Bornstein, T. (2016). Transcultural Architecture: the limits and opportunities of critical
regionalism. Routledge
5Mann-Lewis, B. (2014). A Multigenerational Home: Designing Architecture that Facilitates

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The image above shows the frontage of Kidosaki along the street as it bends inwardly towards
the entrance. The external structural wall serves as an edge which separates the household from
the hectic environs of Tokyo, but, all at once brings together the exterior and the interior of the
house6. However, the house shows likeliness to a bunker, the interiors of this building are simple,
interesting and modern.
6Kidosaki, H. (2017). House in Senzoku-ike/Monolith. GA. Global architecture: Houses, (150),
24-43.

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The figure above shows the architectural drawings for Kidosaki house. They clearly show that as
one goes into the curved wall, can be able to see two flights of stairs, one of them leads to the
first level while another one leads to the second level. Furthermore, there is staircase leading to
the individual floor to a shared area immediately after the staircase. Inside the living space, the
center cube is enclosed by court yards on each side and the different apertures are placed to face
the court yards.
The Court yards and the Apertures
The courtyard built in this house are very essential in enhancing the cohesively of the entire
house. Tadao got his motivation from the courtyards in the traditional town houses within Osaka
but the usage of the concrete as the main construction material in this project enabled Tadao
Ando to build courtyards on each level of this house which is very challenging thing to achieve
by use construction materials locally used in Japan such as wood7.
7Brownell, B. E., & Casbon, B. (2011). Matter in the Floating World: Conversations with
Leading Japanese Architects and Designers; Hitoshi Abe, Tadao Ando, Jun Aoki, Masayo Ave,
Shigeru Ban, Shuhei Endo, Terunobu Fujimori, Kenya Hara, Erika Horiki, Sachiko Kodama,
Kengo Kuma, Toyo Ito, Oki Sato, Kazuyo Sejima, Reiko Sudo, Takaharu Tezuka, Akira Wakita,
Makoto Sei Watanabe, Yasuhiro Yamashita, Tokujin Yoshioka. Princeton Architectural Press.

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in
The courtyards as the one shown in the figure above instills nature in all sections of the building
through a number of features like openings, windows, fixed glass and the sliding doors. This
aperture is different from each other in terms of size and their positioning; this was aimed at
eliminating the instances where the sightline of the openings and the windows was to align
directly from one room to another. By doing that the level of privacy in the house was enhanced
and the attention to the environment was improved. The overtures and the skylights in the roof
permits natural light into the house, hence, improving the involvement of nature more.
Practicality and design
Considering different ways which Tadao has pervaded into this house, most people agree that
the building is practically functioning. Different architects respected the family’s idea and they
allowed them to incorporate them well into the final design of the building. Ando constructed a
remote house which was not only isolated from the external surroundings but also shared into
portions its resident’s privacy. The owner of Kidosaki house was an architect by profession, it’s
clearly believed that Tadao Ando had the taste, unique style and capability style in spite of being
self-taught. The homeowner was much happy regarding to the way the entire house was designed

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and constructed8. When asked why he opted to outsource an architect and yet himself was a
trained architect he responds by saying that he was trying to avoid conflicts with relatives
concerning how the house was constructed. Being an architect who has fully understood the
design principles it would be very hard for him to accept some of the suggestions that were to be
given by the other family members
According to the request made by the client’s mother, some of the interiors in this house were
painted white while other interiors were left to indicate the raw concrete material. The
uniqueness style of Tadao Ando portrays tranquility as shown by the different features like the
pillars, openings in a manner that natural lights compliment them.
Opinions
The irritating exteriors of the Kidosaki house can be clearly noted Tadao Ando’s work. In spite
of some of the arguments that the raw concrete is not suitable for building a house intended for a
family or any other kind of residence. Once one is in Kidosaki House it is very clear what the
main goal the architect intended to achieve was and that the house is very suitable for residence.
Tadao created a sense of curiosity and a sense of mystery with the design and construction of the
Kidosaki house whereby he created a brutal looking appearance on the outside of the building
but at the same time gave a feeling of warmth in the inside of the house. There is a very sharp
contrast between the inside and the outside of the house. The figure below is a sketch of the
interiors9.
8 Baek, J. (2010). Climate, Sustainability And The Space Of Ethics: Tetsuro Watsuji's Cultural Climatology
and Residential Architecture. Architectural Theory Review, 15(3), 377-395.
9Baek, J. (2010). Climate, Sustainability And The Space Of Ethics: Tetsuro Watsuji's Cultural Climatology
and Residential Architecture. Architectural Theory Review, 15(3), 377-395.

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Figure: Redrawn based on a rendering by bigas
Figure: Redrawn based on a rendering by ‘This is 3D’
Figure: Redrawn based on a Photograph by campra

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Koshino House
This house features two parallel concrete rectangles which confines at a point. The form is
precisely covered by the slanting surface of the park and it became a compositional additional to
the national park area it is constructed keenly in order to ensure that it does not disturb in any
way the existing nature, the building responds to the neighborhood ecosystem while this solves
more general environment via reflective penetration of light.
The northern section of the building comprises of two-storey which have a double volume living
room, dining room, and a kitchen on the firsts level of the building with a master bedroom which
is an unsuited and one study room on the next floor. The southern mass contains six bedrooms
for the kids and they are aligned in a line, there is a lobby and a bathroom connecting the two
spaces
Exterior stairs to the courtyard as illustrated in the image below.

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Tadao made use of the space that was between the rectangles to illustrate the environment. This
space shows the courtyard which shades over the contours to the natural slope of the land.

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A broad staircase comes after the inclined surface into the surrounding environs which allow the
light to penetrate via the flowers to the lower courtyard. The independent space stands for the
serene nature that is destined by the structures.