Renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando (together with American artist Elyn Zimmerman) has been named a winner of the 2016 Isamu Noguchi Award, which is awarded “to individuals who share [museum founder] Noguchi’s spirit of innovation, global consciousness, and East-West exchange.”
Tadao Ando, 2004; via Wikipedia
Past winners of the award include some prestigious names from the worlds of art and architecture: in 2014, Norman Foster and Hiroshi Sugimoto received the inaugural prize, while this year’s award went to another Japanese architect — Yoshio Taniguchi — together with English designer Jasper Morrison. The museum expanded on their decision to recognize Ando, a longstanding master of Minimalism:
“Like Noguchi’s sculpture, which gave equal importance to the object and the space it inhabited, Ando’s work harmoniously integrates edifice and environment, while interior and exterior are intimately connected through his incorporation of water, light, wind, sky, and landscape into his building designs.”
Centro Roberto Garza Sada de Arte, Arquitectura y Diseño, Monterrey, Mexico
“Ando learned his first lessons by studying traditional Japanese architecture before learning about modern Western architecture, including the buildings of Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Louis Kahn. The inspiration he drew from these experiences is evident throughout his work which, much like the museum that Noguchi designed, often provide sanctuary from the clamor of daily life.”
152 Elizabeth Street, New York, N.Y., United States;rendering by Noë and Associates and The Boundary, courtesy Sumaida + Khurana
Notable recent works by Ando include the bold, sculptural form of the Centro Roberto Garza Sada de Arte, Arquitectura y Diseño in Monterrey, Mexico, and the architect’s residential debut in New York City: the characteristically concrete condominium at 152 Elizabeth Street currently under construction in the city’s stylish Nolita neighborhood.
