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context: architecture > modern
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the entrance to Ando's water temple - you can see a person walking down into it, to the right |
Tadao Ando, 1941-
Ando is an unquestionably brilliant architect, with countless fresh uses of forms and light and navigational routes. He displays a fascinating combination of modern and postmodern styles with a regional focus. His church of light is shown on the page up from here (see the 'modern' link above), and the water temple has a huge lily pond with a stairway leading down into and under it, to the temple itself. The combination of clean, simple forms with entirely original twists and local references is superbly handled in both of these. Many have regarded him as the world's greatest architect for some years.