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Developing and Changing

Responses to Light in Tadao

Ando’s Three Religion Works. Essay for ARC 6989 Student: Li Guangzong

Student NO.: 100202968 2011/5/3

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Developing and Changing Responses to Light in Tadao Ando’s Three Religion Works.

Content 1. Introduction. 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

Why it is interesting to look into the responses to light in Ando’s works. Chapel on the Mt. Rokko Church on the water Church of the light

2. Analysis and comparison of Ando’s responses to light among these three projects 2.1 Logic, Skill and the meaning beneath the light 3. Conclusion.

1. Introduction Looking into Tadao Ando’s 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 Ando’s 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 Drew’s 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 Ando’s development of his skills. Background of three projects Chapel on the Mt.Rokko To start with this small chapel on the top of Mount Rokko in Osaka, Ando said that: ‘It’s my wish that this quiet space, composed of materials having a definite substantiality, will come to life through light and have an impact on people.’2 It is not too hard to find that light is so important for Figure 1. Chapel on the Mt. Rokko creating scared space here as Ando intended. Although it’s area is quite small, there are three parts of this project, the colonnade, the chapel and the bell tower. Different from the open colonnade, the chapel is a ‘6.5m wide x 13m long x 6.5m high’3 concrete box. The only visible window in the chapel is the square window with cross steel 1 2 3

Philip Drew, Church on the Water Church of the Light, (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1996), p.7. Tadao Ando, ‘Chapel on Mt. Rokko’, The Japanese Architecture, vol.354 (1986), p.11 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 priest’s lectern, immensely increasing holy feeling of this space. While the calm view from the north wall’s window connects people inside with the nature outside and reminds adherent of the secular world at the same time. Church on the Water

Figure 2: Church on the Water

As it is mentioned in Jin Beak’s 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 wall…’5. 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 5

Drew, Church on the Water Church of the light, p.15 Jin Beak, Nothingness: Tadao Ando’s Christian Scared Space, (Great Britain: Routledge,2009), p.103

Church of the Light This small concrete community church in Osaka is quite famous for its cross of light on the wall and brought Ando many awards. Here Ando followed his idiomatic way to create the space by simple concrete box and freestanding walls. This building is composed of a ‘5.9m wide x 17.7m long x 5.9m high’ 6 concrete church and a L shape wall which penetrates the church and inclines 15°to Figure 3: Church of the Light church’s axis. Different from last two churches I just introduced, light plays the absolutely dominating role in this church, which can be found easily from the name of it. Entering into the church from eastern end, visitors can’t see anything, because of the darkness inside the church forms such an expressive comparison from the brightness outside, but light filtering from the cross shape window on the wall in western end. In this church, light is transformed directly into the cross and becomes the figurative symbol of this small scared space. Although there are still small areas window around the entrance, their influence are quite weak, compared to the light of cross, to move visitors’ eyes from the cross. Ando developed his way of response to light extremely in this project and turned this small church to a world famous classical architecture. 2. Analysis and comparison of Ando’s responses to light among these three projects It is interesting to put these three projects together. They all share many Ando’s design talent like that they are all ‘organized by means of simple geometric relationship’7, they are all concrete boxes with grey steel and clear glasses and they all have unforgettable design of nature light inside. While the differences and changes are apparent among them as well. In my opinion, there are three main distinctions among these three Ando’s design of light: the logic, the skill and the meaning beneath the light.

Figure 4: Chapel on the Mt. Rokko

6 7

Logic, Skill and the meaning beneath the light From my view of point, three projects locating in three different kinds of site is the first reason lead to Ando’s different design logic among these projects. Site of Chapel on the Mt. Rokko has a good open view and nature

Drew, Church on the Water Church of the light, p.10 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 Ando’s 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 can’t 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 can’t be used to shape the holy feeling of chapel. Ando’s 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. Here Ando used the skill of comparison Figure 5: Chapel on the Mt. Rokko between the areas of light. The reflective light from the large window and the directly light from the roof lead to the different feeling about the brightness of the space which shape the mood of the chapel and convey holy feeling by emphasizing the lectern in brightest light from the roof. But, I still find some contradictory logic in the design of this chapel. The window on the north wall can provide a connection between visitors and nature, but it is quite weak because outside the window it is just a grassy slope and the concrete wall cut out the connection between the chapel to further view of site. Besides, the cross frame of the window may distract visitors’ attention from the main cross behind the lectern, Figure 6: Chapel on the Mt. Rokko and the light from this big window may weaken the importance of the light from the roof. But these two problems both have been solved in the Church on the Water. 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 church’s 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 Ando’s 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 can’t 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. Figure 7: Church on the Water

Once again, Ando made a comparison between darkness and brightness like in the Chapel on Mt. Rokko. The different thing is that there are two spaces in this comparison, the dark chapel and the bright glass cube, instead of one space as the Chapel on the Mt. Rokko. The light may reflect into the chapel by the water but it is still too dark compared to the totally transparent glass cube. The function of light in the chapel is to lead visitors’ view into the cross and the nature, which subtly connects the nature with God and visitors and creates the Romantic mood for marriage ceremony. While the light of glass cube is to help visitors experience of infinite, which is church’s basic function as well. The four freestanding crosses is a comparison to the cross standing on the water. If the cross on the water represent for the God in the nature, I would like to say that the four crosses are reminding visitors that God is everywhere in every direction. Ando separated the two basic part of church by light in two cubes, one for the marriage of mundane world, the other for the saint world of God. However, in the Church of Light, I think Ando has improved his logic and skill of designing light into a higher place. For the Church of Light, I think the first reason for Ando to design it as a Figure 8: Church on the Water heavy concrete box is that it ‘functions Christian church on the outskirts of Osaka that serves the local community’8. It locates inside a community and there is not too much open space for it, as we know that Japanese density is so high in the city. Ando’s logic about nature seems that it can’t suit this site’s situation, so he chose to make the light become the most vital component in this church by reducing any other windows which may weaken the power of the light cross. To make a cross shape on the wall is the extreme response Ando made to light among these three small religious works. 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 space’s 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 The Church of light, in my opinion, is the most mature works among these three works in all design logic, skill and the meaning beneath the light. But it is also based on the development of Ando’s experience from the last two works.

Figure 10: Church of the Light

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 Plummer’s words to demonstrate what I think of light. ‘The study of light, therefore, is something more than a mere investigation of illumination…Always the same and always different, light reveals what is.’11 9 10 11

Beak, Nothingness: Tadao Ando’s Christian Scared Space, p.103-p.107 Drew, Church on the Water Church of the light, p.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 Ando’s Christian Scared Space, (Great Britain: Routledge,2009) Drew, Philip, Church on the Water Church of the Light, (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1996) Mayne, Thom, ‘Tadao Ando’, Graphis, Vol.47 (1991) Pare, Richard, Tadao Ando The Colours of Light, (China: Phaidon Press Limited, 2000) Plummer, Henry, ‘Poetics of Light’, Architecture and Urbanism, 12 (1987), 5. Suzuki, Daisetz T, Zen And Japanese Culture, (USA: Routledge And Kegan Paul Ltd, 1959)