Name: Lim Jern Jack

ID: 0317139

Contextual Architecture of Tadao Ando and Frank Lloyd Wright

Tadao Ando- Koshino House

Frank Lloyd Wright- Falling Water

Tadao Ando is a master architect where he started to integrate the idea of

developing the traditional Japanese architecture with the modern architecture to

create the connectivity and continuity in between the new and old ones. When

conceptualising his form, Ando took the inspiration from Zen philosophies as a

fundamental persistent, with the interaction of nature and artificial elements that

come together as large geometric shapes which transverse both interior and exterior

spaces that intended to represent the dual nature of existence (Scott, 2011).

However, Frank Lloyd Wright coined the word ‘organic’ into his philosophy of

architecture, and it was an extension of the phrase to “form and function are one”

from Sullivan’s “form follows function”, a well integration of using nature as a part of

the building (Elman, n.d.). Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture is not a style of

imitation because he did not claim to be building forms; instead, his organic

architecture is a reinterpretation of nature’s principles as they had been filtered to

build forms that are more natural than nature itself. It would be crystal clear if we

compare their masterpieces, the Koshino House by Tadao Ando and Falling Water

by Frank Lloyd Wright, in the way of their significant massing and form that reside on

the sites themselves respectively.

The context of a building is undoubtedly a key element of architecture that

how the site is dwelling with the architecture should not be neglected. The Koshino

House is one of the earliest works of Tadao Ando. It was built on a site composed of

pleasant woods and irregularly shaped slopes to create a sense of serenity and

harmony with the landscape (Figure 1). In the architectural philosophy of Ando, it is

Figure 1: This photo indicates how Koshino House is beautifully inserted on the site (Koshino House, n.d.).

crucial to integrate the landscape as architecture to actually reunite the house and

the surrounding nature, whereby this is inspired by the traditional Japanese

architecture, which creates intimate connection with nature and the openness

towards the natural world. Through Koshino house, Ando demonstrated his fine use

of material, and also the ever changing shapes of the shadows created through the

day, but more importantly in the context of massing and form, the angle of how the

building is placed, all of which has been carefully thought out by Ando. In the

Koshino House, Ando strategically positioned the two organic concrete boxes in

parallel so as to avoid the scattered existing trees on the site, and had them

embedded into the ground that this responses to the adjacent ecosystem (Figure 2).

Figure 2: This photo indicates how Ando avoid the existing trees on the site (Koshino House exterior shot 02, 2012).

The two different sizes of boxes are bridged by an underground corridor, and an

opened courtyard that is connected to the nature with his early intention by splitting

the geometry shape into smaller volumes or forms to fuse it well into the site as a

kind of paying respect to the nature to leave it untouched, and then building a house

on it in the meanwhile. The semi-circular atelier was added later on after 4 years

construction because Ando felt there was a need to harmonise the house with a

curve to sublime the overall form, which the line of curve has reduced the sense of

boxy (Figure 3). Ando pointed out that when we look at Japanese traditional

Figure 3: The additional curve that sublimes the overall form (Kabra, 2014).

architecture, we have to look at Japanese culture and its relationship with nature,

and you will find out that we can actually live in a harmonious, close contact with

nature where this is very unique to Japan (Ivy, 2002). Japanese traditional

architecture is created based on these conditions. This is the reason Koshino House

has a very high degree of connection between the outside and inside in architecture.

Thus, the blending in effect created for the house on the site does not compromise

its overall composition.

Apart from that, for Falling Water, Kostof (1985) stated that Wright sends out

free-floating platforms audaciously over a small waterfall and anchors them in the

natural rock, where something of the prairie house is here still; also detect a grudging

recognition of the International Style in the interlocking geometry of the planes and

the flat, non-textured surface of the main shelves. But thoroughly fused with its site

and, inside, the rough stonewalls and the flagged floors are of an elemental

ruggedness. Wright had challenged Sullivan’s maxim, “Form Follows Function”,

stating that, “Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and

function should be one, joined in a spiritual union” (Frank Lloyd Wright The World's

Most Influential Architect, 2013). Falling Water was made from the geometrical order

that Wright saw in the uneven rocks and made the rectangular slabs regular

rectangles (Figure 4). The major form of Falling Water is the rectangular prisms that

Figure 4: Different sizes of rocks that put together to form rectangular slabs (Felix, 2013).

are stacked on top of one another at 90 degree angles, in which this simple geometry

was designed to let the cantilevers or the rectangular balconies that jut outwards

would hold the building over the waterfall (Figure 5). Furthermore, on the main level

Figure 5: Balconies that seem to be overhung (Fallingwater, 2015).

of Falling Water, the perimeter of the rectangular central space is lit by square ceiling

panels, and the four corners are supported by rectangular patterned stone piers. The

cantilevered roofs and terraces create planes and rectangular prisms that seem to go

on and on, which this is the quality that makes Wright's masterpiece looks like it is a

part of the landscape. Falling Water's horizontal lines go up to three levels with

rectangular and parallel terraces and cantilevers over the rocky bank. The horizontal

bands, which are made of concrete, are balanced by a perpendicular wall (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Counterpoint happens when the horizontal bands are balanced by the perpendicular wall (Interior Decorating in New York & New Jersey, n.d.).

In which, it is harmonised with the presence of the counterpoint, where at the same

point, the bold rectangular geometry of the horizontal parapets and vertical stone

massing over the waterfall enclosed in an untouched nature meets the idea of

counterpoising quality for maximum impact. Certainly the work of Frank Lloyd Wright

has forever changed the landscape of America. Yet, today many critics have found

“flaws” in Wright’s engineering, and his personality, but undeniably, his influence on

architecture still stands (Irving, 2003a).

Tadao Ando and Frank Lloyd Wright are from total different backgrounds but

they have a certain way of approaching in their styles of architecture that create

some kind of similarity. Preserving the nature always comes first is the basic rule in

their philosophy because they both agree with the idea of leaving the nature

untouched, and making the building or architecture as a part of the landscape is the

best way of designing a space that suits people’s needs, and even more importantly,

we always want to back to basics and back to nature, which the masterpieces of

them have shown these qualities. The character of Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings

prescribed not a style, but an expression of consciousness that inspired

reinterpretations of forms in the modern world (Irving, 2003b). In the meanwhile,

Tadao Ando has his very own unique way of interpretation about the language of

architecture, as he was inspired by Le Corbusier in the early stage to use the

concrete massing, but he used it in a different manner that this marks him to

influence not only the Japanese modern architecture but rest of the world that this

will continue to inspire many.

Reference: Elman, K. (n.d.). Frank Lloyd Wright and the Principles of Organic Architecture. Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://www.pbs.org/flw/legacy/essay1.html Fallingwater. (2015). Retrieved May 28, 2015, from http://www.fallingwater.org Felix, B. (2013, July 3). ContentWriting. Retrieved May 28, 2015, from http://contentinwriting.blogspot.com/2013/07/fallingwater-organic-and-modern.html Frank Lloyd Wright The World's Most Influential Architect. (2013). Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://www.distinctbuild.ca/frank_lloyd_wright_houses.php Interior Decorating in New York & New Jersey. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2015, from http://decoratingflair.com/fallingwater.htm Irving, C. (2003). Influences of the Organic. Liberal Arts 200B, 10-10. Ivy, R. (2002). The Spirit of Modernism. Retrieved May 21, 2015, from http://archrecord.construction.com/people/interviews/archives/0205ando.asp Kabra, M. (2014, September 9). Koshino House by Tadao Ando - Architect Boy. Retrieved May 28, 2015, from http://architectboy.com/koshino-house-tadao-ando/ Koshino House. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2015, from http://en.wikiarquitectura.com/index.php?title=Koshino_House Koshino House exterior shot 02. (2012, January 22). Retrieved May 28, 2015, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/33354011@N05/ Kostof, S. (1985) A History of Architecture, Settings and Rituals. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. p737. Scott. (2011, August 1). Design Inspiration: Tadao Ando. Retrieved May 18, 2015, from http://www.kensa-creative.com/blog/design-inspiration-tadao-ando/