References

Tadao Ando biography :http://architect.architecture.sk/tadao-ando-architect/tadao-ando-architect.php

Rokko housing : http://www.cse.polyu.edu.hk/~cecspoon/lwbt/Case_Studies/Rokoo/Rokoo.htm

Kenneth Frampton : http://www.colorado.edu/envd/courses/envd4114-001/Spring%2006/Theory/Frampton.pdf

The Rokko Housing I,II,III

Rokko housing I

While emphasized on interaction and encountering, this collective housing was created with variegated relationship between public and private through the concept of alley spaces and public terraces where residents encounter. With the intention to create and reinforce a relationship between nature, public space and private space, a grid system is employed to control the overall structure.

 Each of the 20 units is 5,4 x 4,8 m in size, and each has a terrace looking out towards the bush harbour of Kobe.

Rokko housing II

Some years later, Tadao Ando build a second housing complex, adjacent to Rokko Housing I. (Rokko Housing II.). Four times larger than the original building, this structure includes 50 dwellings, designed on a 5,2m square grid. A third and even larger structure is now under way above Rokko Housing II.

 In Rokko III, another element is introduced: prefabrication. The architect is embarking on this project without any client commission at the time of 1991. Though certainly it can be said that prefab means to lower costs in group housing based on technical and economic rationale, the architect’s attempt is a far more socially related thinking. It is a logical choice given that Rokko III is a complex several times the size of II.

Process/ Landscape

one of the most exciting aspects of the project at that time is that it is actually built "into" the landscape while stepping down along the slope. The attempt is to take advantage of natural site constraints, as oppose to the common practice of "erasing" the  whole terrain and natural features, or building over stilt structure. Such an attempt not only demonstrated the building design being integrated with the natural landscape, but also achieved a design variety. It is important to note the extensive cut and fill works involved. 

Rokko housing I

Rokko housing I and I

                         

                                 

                                                                     Terrace

Courtyard

                                            

   

Interior

                           

                                                                                  

Tadao Ando: one of the world 's greatest living architect

One of the most influential architect in this type of building is Tadao Ando. He was born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan. From the age of 10 to 17 Tadao Ando worked at local carpenter, where he learned how to work with wood; and built a number of models of airplanes and ships. His studying was very unusual. "I was never a good student. I always preferred learning things on my own outside of class. When I was about 18, I started to visit temples, shrines and tea houses in Kyoto and nara; There's a lot of great traditional architecture in the area. I was studying architecture by going to see actual building, and reading books about them." His first interest in architecture was nourished in Tadao's 15 by buying a book of Le Corbusier sketches. "I traced the drawings of his early period so many times, that all pages turned black," says Tadao Ando: "in my mind I quite often wonder how Le Corbusier would have thought about this project or that."

Tadao Ando took a number of visits to the United States, Europe and Africa in the period between 1962 and 1969. It was certainly at that time that Tadao Ando began to form his own ideas about architectural design, before founding Tadao Ando Architectural & Associates in Osaka in 1969. 

Tadao Ando 's winner of many prestigous architectural awards, for example Carlsberg Prize (1992), Pritzker Prize (1995), Praemium Imperiale (1996), Gold Medal of Royal Institute of British Architects (1997) and now is one of the most highly respected architect in the world, influencing an entire generation of students.

The first impression of his architecture is its materiality. His large and powerfull walls set a limit. A second impression of his work is the tactility. His hard walls seem soft to touch, admit light, wind and stillness. Third impression is the emptiness, because only light space surround the visitor in Tadao Ando 's building.

All Tadao Ando 's work are characteristically simple, and we can find similar forms in the first half of 20th century: "I am interested in a dialogue with the architecture of the past", he says, "but it must be filtered through my own vision and my own experience. I am indebted to Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, but the same way, I take what they did and interpret it in my own fashion."

One of the first projects to bring international attention to Tadao Ando was his Rokko Housing I.
He's most remarkable works are certainly the religious buildings. "I feel that the goal of most religious is similar, to make men happier and more at ease with themselves. I see no contradiction in my designing christian churches. " Tadao Ando has build a number of christian chapels and other places of religion and contemplation. One of the most amazing church is also one of his simplest, the church of the light (Baraki, Osaka, 1988-89).

Introduction to Critical Regionalism

Critical regionalism is not a new form of architecture. In his Ten books, Vitruvius discussed regional variations in architecture, and the Romantics propounded picturesque regionalism during the nineteenth century; in addition it has dominated architecture in many countries during the last two centuries.

This type of architecture is a strategy for achieving a more human architecture in the face of universally held abstractions and international clichés. Coined by Alexander Tzonis  and Liane Lefaivre in 1981, the term was seized upon by Frampton, who argued that architects should seek regional variations in their buildings instead of continuing to design in a style of global uniformity using ‘consumerist iconography masquerading as culture’, and should ‘mediate the impact’ of universal civilization with themes drawn indirectly from the individual ‘peculiarities of a particular place’. While appreciating the dangers of industrialization and technology, he did not advocate revivals of either the great historical styles or a humble vernacular type of building. In essence, he sought the deconstruction of global Modernism, criticized post-Modernism for reducing architecture to a mere ‘communicative or instrumental sign’, and proposed the introduction of alien paradigms to the indigenous genius loci. 

In his book Frampton explains critical reginalism as will mediate the spectrum between universal civilization and the particularities of place. To maintain its critical edge one need be aware of the draw of Populism. This movement seeks to economically supplant reality with information, often in the form of imagery found in advertising. Critical regionalism, situated between and beholding, simply requests the recognition of both world culture and universal civilization. This recognition must mediate the world culture by 'deconstructing' the eclecticism of acquired alien forms and the universal civilization by limiting  the economy of technological production.