Tadao Ando retrospective to open at the Centre Pompidou in Paris
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

The Centre Pompidou opens a major retrospective of Japanese architect Tadao Ando (opens in new tab) on 10 October, unpacking and celebrating the core elements of his practice from his use of concrete and geometric volumes to the integration of nature, light and water into his designs.
Born in Osaka in 1941, Ando is well-known to be self-taught, travelling the world to understand architecture across cultures as part of this learning. He set up his practice Tadao Ando and Associates in 1969.
Koshino House, 1981/1984. Photography: Shinkenchiku-sha
Since then, he has completed over 300 projects across his 50-year career, picking up the Pritzker prize in 1995. The exhibition traverses periods of his production from his first house project in 1976, the Azuma House in Sumiyoshi, to his work on Naoshima island that commenced in 1988 and continues today, the Church of Light in 1989 and his upcoming La Bourse de Commerce in Pari, scheduled to complete in autumn 2019.
Fifty projects will be presented in detail within the exhibition alongside 180 drawings, including travel notebooks, personal photographs taken by Ando and 70 original models, allowing visitors to experience the process, inspiration and completed results of Ando’s architectural journey together.
Festival, 1984. Photography: Tadao Ando
One part of the exhibition includes an installation surrounding Ando’s work at Naoshima, and his dialogue with the natural landscape. Working with the natural topography and creatively modelling the land, Ando buried a museum of modern art into the hillside, sculpting and merging his architecture with the rocks and the horizon beyond. Ando is working on two further museums for the island, that has now become a beloved monument and a site of pilgrimage to architects.
The thematic pathway of the exhibition through five sections looks to communicate Ando’s experience, interest and ethics of design, uniting projects by common ground and values such as surface, shape, nature and spirituality.
Hill Of The Buddha, 2015. Photography: Shigeo Ogawa
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth 2002. Photography: Mitsuo Matsuoka
Chichu Art Museum in Naoshima, 2004. Photography: Tadao Ando Architect Associates
Sayamaike Historical Museum, 2001. Photography: Mitsuo Matsuoka
Model Of Row House Sumiyoshi. Photography: Georges Meguerditchian
Benesse House Museum Oval Naoshima, 1992-95. Photography: Mitsuo Matsuoka
Koshino House, 1981-84. Photography: Shinkenchiku Sha
Church On The Water, 1988. Photography: Yoshio Shiratori
Pulitzer Foundation For The Arts, 2001. Photography: Shinkenchiku Sha
INFORMATION
‘Tadao Ando, the Challenge’ is on view from 10 October to 31 December. For more information, visitor the Centre Pompidou website (opens in new tab) and the Tadao Ando website (opens in new tab)
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
Bosco Sodi’s monumental new Mexico City studio is a multifunctional feat
As Bosco Sodi unveils his new Studio CMDX in Atlampa, Mexico City, we speak to the artist about how the vast Alberto Kalach-designed former warehouse is a feat in multitasking
By Juliana Piskorz • Published
-
Saltviga House is an architectural celebration of leftovers
Saltviga House by Kolman Boye Architects ingeniously uses offcuts from Dinesen planks to create a timber retreat on the south coast of Norway
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Paola Navone turns her souvenirs into lottery prizes
Lottery now open: ‘Take It Or Leave It’ – by Paola Navone and The Slowdown with Daniel Rozensztroch – sees the Italian designer offer her souvenirs to the design community in Milan
By Maria Cristina Didero • Published
-
Q-Park Ravet is a parking garage and viewing platform that celebrates urban heritage
Q-Park Ravet by Hérault Arnod Architectures with artist Krijn de Koning brings creativity and monumentality to a utilitarian parking garage structure in the French city of Chambéry
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
‘Brutalist Paris’ is a book that lays bare the legacy of the city’s concrete architecture
Architectural cartographer Blue Crow Media launches ‘Brutalist Paris’, its first book, a photographic study of the French capital’s surviving brutalist treasures and concrete impasses
By Jonathan Bell • Published
-
Maison de Verre: a dramatic glass house in France by Studio Odile Decq
Maison de Verre in Carantec is a glass box with a difference, housing a calming interior with a science fiction edge
By Jonathan Bell • Published
-
Galerie Derouillon gets minimalist overhaul
Galerie Derouillon in Paris has been redesigned by Saba Ghorbanalinejad, in collaboration with Iris Lacoudre Architecte, as a flexible, minimalist haven for the arts
By Ellie Stathaki • Last updated
-
Saba Ghorbanalinejad, France: Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2022
Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory is our annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios. France’s Saba Ghorbanalinejad joins the 2022 list with this minimalist home extension in Nanterre
By Martha Elliott • Last updated
-
Bas Smets on landscaping Notre-Dame, and ‘hacking' a city to fight climate change
Landscape architect Bas Smets talks to us about Notre-Dame, modern gardens, microclimates and more
By Ellie Stathaki • Last updated
-
Minimalist science hub added to Grenoble’s Institut Laue-Langevin
Institut Laue-Langevin addition by Levitt Bernstein and TKMT architects opens in Grenoble, France
By Ellie Stathaki • Last updated
-
Lacaton & Vassal houses for sale flag sensitivity and experimentation
Two houses by 2021 Pritzker Prize-winning architecture studio Lacaton & Vassal go for sale in France
By Ellie Stathaki • Last updated