Every designers and architects have their very own style of designs that would become their signature and would be recognized when people see their works. In this essay, I choose to write about the two distinguished Japanese architects, Tadao Ando and Shigeru Ban, and their works of Church of the Light and Cardboard Cathedral respectively.
Tadao Ando, one of the most notable contemporary Japanese architects who was born in Osaka, Japan in 1941, Ando had never attended any formal architectural education. He is a self-taught architect with a legendary early life. After graduated from high school, Ando began his adult life as a boxer. He used the significant amount of money that he won from boxing competition to visit buildings around the world. Before each trip, Ando would do his own preparation to learn about the buildings that he was going to visit, made notes about the details during the visit, and would study it thoroughly after returning to Japan. Kenzo Tange’s Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has a great influence on Ando’s love in using reinforced concrete in almost every of his buildings. Le Corbusier, the French pioneer of modern architecture, one of the most renowned works of his, the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp also influenced Ando very much in the usage of natural light in his work. Through continuous travelling experience and visiting many masters’ works of different countries, Ando learnt and developed his own style and idea of architecture. The use of unadorned architectural concrete wall become his unique style and symbol. He then won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995, the highest honor in the architecture industry.
Ando is a master in making use of light, nature and space to express them fully which brought him to become well known globally in the 1980s. He hardly uses any decoration in order to show the nature appearance of material, the intent is to draw the focus onto the light and space within the building. He finished his two most acknowledged designs, the Church on the Water and the Church of the Light in 1988 and 1989 respectively. Both churches remain some of his most renowned works; they are the best examples of Ando’s architectural principles.
Church of the Light, completed in 1989 is also known as Ibaraki Kasugaoka Church. It is a member of “United Church of Christ in Japan” which located at Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan. The Church of the Light is basically a rectangular concrete box cut through at 15 degrees by a freestanding wall, the most notable feature of the church is the cruciform opening behind the altar, which allows natural light to shine into the interior. The freestanding wall hooks back on itself next to the street and cover a section of the altar elevation. For the interior, Ando used blackened cedar scaffolding planks for floors and pews. Floor is slanted downward with a gentle degree towards the altar to represents “ Jesus Christ, who came down to the lowest of us all.” Ando did not want to install glass at the cruciform opening to allow wind to enter just as the light does initially, however the winter in Osaka does not allow him to do so. This shows Ando’s ideology of bringing nature into buildings.
The Church of the Light is a relatively small building having an area of 113sq m – just around the same size as a small house, surrounded by pine trees, situated at the corner of two streets at Ibaraki. The church can be used as a concert space, an event space and for Christian services. Ando choose to use natural material such as timber for pews, which lighten the coldness of the concrete, and therefore creates a feeling of warmth to the interior. Once people entre the church, their eyes need to take time to adapt to the darkness. Although there are four small light fittings on the wall, the cruciform opening in the end wall is the main daylight source. The concrete wall with glass-like surface helps to disperse the light more evenly by reflecting light off the ceiling and walls. The radiant light of the church was inspired by the Abbey at Senanque in Provence, which Ando have visited in the 1960s. Ando likes to allocate oriental and Japanese types to neutralize with Western paragons, as his intension is to fuse different spatial ideas into a harmonious surpassing architecture.
Shigeru ban, a Japanese architect whom born in Tokyo in 1957. He started to show his talent in architecture when he studied in junior high school and thus determined to become an architect since eleven years old. Ban persists in what he wanted to be and to reach the goal. After graduated from Cooper Union School of Architecture in the United State, Ban established his own private practice in Tokyo, Japan in 1985 without any work experience. He then started to design exhibitions and other projects in the same time while developing his paper tube structures.
Ban is well known for structures and buildings that incorporate materials that are easily attainable such as paper and cardboard, and especially for his remarkable development of paper-tube technology. He is a humanitarian, an innovative and courageous advocate for those in need. In 1994, Rwandan Civil War caused more than two million people to lose their homes and forced to live in terrible conditions. Ban put his paper log house into practice for humanitarian work for the first time. He then started the NGO Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN), a Non-governmental Organization to start disaster relief activities. He will lead volunteers of VAN to places where disasters such as earthquake, tsunami, hurricane or even war happened. Ban’s temporary shelters, school and cathedral had brought great improvement in terms of living conditions and quality of life. Those structures also brought comfort to the victims of disasters so that to help them get through the difficulties. Their humanitarian works have already been reached many countries such as Japan, Turkey, India, Sri Lanka, China, Haiti, Italy, New Zealand and Philippines. In 2014, Ban won the most prestigious prize in the field of architecture, The Pritzker Architecture Prize for his creative use of material and his huge contribution to humanitarian efforts around the world.
Cardboard Cathedral is a temporary church at Christchurch, New Zealand. It is a remarkable representative of Shigeru Ban’s paper-tube technology. On 21st of February 2011, an earthquake with magnitude of 6.3 devastated the Christchurch Cathedral, which was the 1850s landmark and the symbol of the city. Shigeru Ban was then designed this new temporary church using his paper-tube construction to replace the ruined cathedral. Cardboard Cathedral was constructed with a base of eight shipping containers and paper tubes of equal length to form a triangular shape. There are steel rods hided inside cardboard tubes in order to support the A-frame. Paper tubes are constructed with slightly change in each angle to form the geometry which is decided by plan and elevations of the original cathedral. A spectacular stained-glass window is installed to correspond to the original cathedral. This cathedral is able to hold 700 people. Ban also designed all the church furniture such as pulpit, door and candleholders in wood and cardboard.
The Cardboard Cathedral is designed with a lifespan of around 50 years, it will be there until a permanent cathedral can be designed and built. This temporary cathedral was the first non-commercial building to be built in the city center of Christchurch after the disaster. After receiving a tentative email from cathedral staff of asking whether if Shigeru Ban is able to help, he immediately responded to offer help of designing a transitional cathedral at no cost. This project includes all the key elements of Ban’s ‘emergency architecture’, which are paper tubes, shipping containers and a lightweight skin. His idea of design is to construct an A-frame structure using mainly ready-made components, as it can be built in the shortest period of time in order to serve the community as soon as possible. The former Anglican cathedral becomes a symbol of the earthquake itself while the cardboard cathedral represents a mark of moving on.
These two Japanese architects share a common cultural heritage who view the built environment through a clearly different angle. There are differences between the two religious buildings. The Church of the Light is a permanent one with a small capacity while the Cardboard Cathedral is a temporary work that can accommodate 700 people. The interior of the Church of the Light is gloomy as the main light source is only from the cross opening, while the interior of the Cardboard Cathedral is bright as there is a huge glass window and sufficient light sources. Tadao Ando and Shigeru Ban have their own different approaches, drive and direction. Ando’s symbolic style is his love in using concrete as the primary material for building and merges the nature to be in harmony with the structure. The Church of the Light is the perfect expression of Ando’s unique approach of architecture. While Ban’s signature style is his paper architecture incorporates with other prefabricated material, these can usually be built in a short period of time that used for humanitarian work. The Cardboard Cathedral best represents Ban’s singular paper-tube architecture. Ando’s drive and direction is to bring man and nature together, wanting them to confront each other inside the internal world of his building. There are three impressions that created by Ando’s architecture – materiality, tactility and emptiness. He mentions the Pantheon in Rome influences his work greatly, as it shows that simple shapes styled with expert use of light and materials is able to create a splendid space. While Ban’s drive and direction is to make use of his emergency architecture technology to reach as many countries as possible thus provide help for those in need. Those timesaving and easily constructed buildings allow the victims of disasters to maintain their privacy and dignity. Ban’s structures are practical and at the same time full with warmth.
Although the two outstanding architects are growing up and living in the similar cultural background, their styles of work are completely different, the message and faith that they want to pass on through their works to the people are not alike too. An architect from an amateur to become internationally well known through self-learning, another architect makes selfless and constant contribution to humanity; both of them are the inspiration and role model for our society.