Tadao Ando : The Colours of Light (Mini Edition) [Hardcover]

Tadao Ando (Author), Richard Pare (Author), Tom Heneghan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2000

The result of ten years of collaboration between English photographer Richard Pare and the internationally renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando, this book provides a photographic view of Ando's work. Pare has built up a portfolio of 200 images in which he has tried to distil the essence of each building. The book approaches Ando's work from a different angle, exploring the atmosphere, light and shade of his spaces.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Colours of Light is a beautiful, dense little book that showcases English photographer Richard Pare's stunning takes on the respected, influential Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Pare photographed Ando's work over a 10-year period, and with a remarkable consistency has realized the intricacies of Ando's constructed confrontations between architecture and nature. Pare translates this dialogue with great skill in his photographs and easily manages to convey (convert?) the conversations about space, the absence/presence dialectic, that all buildings declaim. In his overview essay at the end of the book, Pare writes: "Space itself is immovable. It has no movement, though all movement is in space. All space is actually static, and potentially dynamic. We conceive space statically, but we experience it dynamically. The space that is rendered in a photograph is a static space of potential movement." His photographs bear out, but overcome, this tension. Tom Heneghan's introduction wonders if Pare's career as a "photographer of architecture rather than an architectural photographer" has enabled him to so keenly grasp the nature of Ando's work. Whatever the reason, this is a remarkable collection. --Mark Thwaite, Amazon.co.uk

From Library Journal

Dramatically understated and immaculately detailed, Ando's architecture interweaves concrete and glass as primary materials and stone, wood, and steel as secondary materials, resulting in Zen understatement, cool elegance, and aesthetic purity. This volume is an apt representation of Ando's work. Pare's photographs describe and reveal the architecture with a level of detail often unseen in architectural photography. A highly informative and thorough introductory essay by architect Tom Heneghan is interspersed with pencil sketches printed on translucent Japanese paper. An appendix describing major projects mixes black-and-white photographs, plans, sections, and elevations with data on building area, structural materials, and construction dates. This material would serve better had it been integrated with Pare's photographs, and an index would have helped. Still, students of modern architecture will delight in Pare's unparalleled portrait of Ando's work.?Paul Glassman, Pratt Inst. Lib., Brooklyn
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press (January 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 071483999X
• ISBN-13: 978-0714839998
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good architectural photography book, March 16, 2005

By 

ArchiZona "archidreamer" (Phoenix, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tadao Ando : The Colours of Light (Mini Edition) (Hardcover)

The value of this book largely depends on how familiar you are with Ando's work. For example, if you have read articles about his Water Temple from architectural magazines, it is really nice to zoom in and take a close look at several details shown in this book. On the other hand, if you don't know Water Temple project, it will be hard for you to catpure the overall structure of this incredible building from this book. Simply put, this book focuses more on photography and details rather than overall structure. You need to study these projects in order to appreciate the details. Of course, the pictures are really nice.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Nature of the Unnatural, April 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Tadao Ando : The Colours of Light (Hardcover)

The sublime architecture of Ando, delivered on a haunting polychromatic plate by R. Pare. The photos discover many of the wonderful uses of space and form Ando masters and manipulates to tame light into a force that is nearly unrivaled by any other modern architect. Certainly it makes the oft ludicrous shapes of several (ahem) "Experienced" LA-types appear clumsy and banal (Basque'ing in their own glory perhaps?). Most wonderful is the way in which he can make one look at the 'ordinary' materials used (exposed concrete, etc.), and focus on the forms themselves; or better, to enjoy the materials in their place. Why a '9' rather than a perfect score? Though less artistic, I would have enjoyed a few more full-shots along with the other photos to better put each structure into a perspective understandable by those of us unable to visit the sites in person.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful little book, November 8, 2001

By 

"buenosdingdongdiddlydias" (Pasadena, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tadao Ando : The Colours of Light (Mini Edition) (Hardcover)

Beautiful little portfolio showcasing some of Tadao Ando's best known work. Richard Pare's photographs are excellent. The book's design is also very elegant in its minimalism. A must have.