MASTERS OF ARCHITECTURE

ASIAN ARCHITECTS

MASTERS OF ARCHITECTUREKenzo Tange()

Kenz Tange (1913-2005), Japanese architect, the most prominent modern architect of Japan. In his designs for public buildings, Tange reconciled 20th-century Western styles and materials with traditional Japanese forms. He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the highest award in architecture, in 1987.

Born September 4, 1913, in saka, Tange studied architecture and engineering at Tokyo University, becoming a professor in 1946.He was heavily influenced by French architect Le Corbusier, a master in the use of unadorned concrete.Tange continued to work in and theorize about Urban Planning throughout the 50s; his Plan for Tokyo 1960 re-thought urban structures and heavily influenced theMetabolist movement.

LIFE AND CAREERHe achieved international prominence in 1949 with his winning design for the Peace Museum in Hiroshima, Japan.

HIS WORKS

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (1955), Hiroshima, Japan

Yoyogi National Gymnasium 1964, Tokyo, Japan

HIS WORKS

St. Marys Cathedral(Tokyo Cathedral)1964 Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo City Hall Complex1991 Tokyo, JapanMost of Tanges buildings are of reinforced concrete, the logical modern building material of Japan, where frequent earthquakes limit the use of the glass-and-steel construction common in other countries. Although his style was modernist, as can be seen in hisYoyogi National GymnasiumandSt. Mary Cathedral, Tange was also inspired by Japanese history and culture.His buildings are notable for elegance, intimate scaling, and the use of roofs suspended on cables or steel.

ARCHITECTURAL APPROACH

Architecture must have something that appeals to the human heart, but even then, basic forms, spaces and appearances must be logical. Creative work is expressed in our time as a union of technology and humanity. The role of tradition is that of a catalyst, which furthers a chemical reaction, but is no longer detectable in the end result. Tradition can, to be sure, participate in a creation, but it can no longer be creative itself.Tadao Ando ()

Ando Tadao, born in 1941, Japanese architect, whose work combines the forms and materials of modern Western architecture with traditional Japanese aesthetic principles. He is also a prolific writer of architectural theory and is widely regarded as an able spokesperson for a movement called critical regionalism.In 1995 Ando was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture.

Ando was born in Osaka, Japan. A self-taught architect, his training consisted primarily of first-hand observation of buildings during travels in Europe, the United States, and Africa from 1962 to 1969. He opened his own architectural practice in Osaka in 1969, and in 1979 he won the annual prize of the Architectural Institute of Japan for his Azuma House (1976) in the Sumiyoshi ward of Osaka. LIFE AND CAREER

Azuma HouseSumiyoshi Osaka, Japan

HIS WORKS

Modern Art MuseumForth Worth US

Church on the WaterTomamu Hokkaido, Japan

HIS WORKS

Japanese PavilionChurch of LightAndo has strong culture backgrounds in Japan, where he was raised and also currently lives. Japanese religion and style of life strongly influenced his architecture and design. Ando's architectural style is said to create a haiku" effect, emphasizing nothingness and empty space to represent the beauty of simplicity. He favors designing complex spatial circulation while maintaining the appearance of simplicity. As an architect, he believes that architecture can change the society--"to change the dwelling is to change the city and to reform society"."Reform society" could be a promotion of a place or a change of the identity of that place.

ARCHITECTURAL APPROACH

You cannot simply put something new into a place. You have to absorb what you see around you, what exists on the land, and then use that knowledge along with contemporary thinking to interpret what you see.Wang Shu()

Wang Shuis a Chinese architect based inHangzhou,Zhejiang Province. He is the dean of the School of Architecture of theChina Academy of Art.In 2012, Wang became the first Chinese citizen to win thePritzker Prize, the world's top prize in architecture.

Wang Shu was born on 4 November 1963 in rmqi, the capital of theXinjiangUyghur Autonomous Regionin China's far west. Wang chose to study architecture at the Nanjing Institute of Technology inNanjing,Jiangsu Provinceand received a bachelor's degree in 1985 and a master's degree in 1988. Although Wang lived in rmqi and Beijing in his early life, after college he moved to Hangzhou for the city's natural landscapes and ancient tradition of art. In 1997, Wang Shu and his wife Lu Wenyu, also an architect, founded the firm Amateur Architecture Studio.They chose the name as a rebuke of the "professional, soulless architecture" practiced in China, which they believe has contributed to the large-scale demolition of many old urban neighborhoods.

LIFE AND CAREER

His Works

Ningbo Historic MuseumNingbo District, Shanghai

Five Scattered HouseNingbo District, Shanghai

His Works

Vertical Courtyard ApartmentHangzhou, China

Ceramic HouseJinhua, ChinaWang creates modern buildings making use of traditional materials and applying older techniques. The Ningbo Museum is constructed of bricks salvaged from buildings which had been demolished to facilitate new developments. Wang is a keen supporter of architectural heritage where globalization has stripped cities of their special attributes.

ARCHITECTURAL APPROACH

"opening new horizons while at the same time resonates with place and memory",