Quotes from Tadao Ando

I am interested in things happening around me, and I need to understand what's going on in other artistic sectors like music and literature.

Look at London or Paris: they're both filthy. You don't get that in Tokyo. The proud residents look after their city.

Working in Tokyo has convinced me that, contrary to what people think, it is actually one of the world's most beautiful cities.

The computer offers another kind of creativity. You cannot ignore the creativity that computer technology can bring. But you need to be able to move between those two different worlds.

When I design buildings, I think of the overall composition, much as the parts of a body would fit together. On top of that, I think about how people will approach the building and experience that space.

When I draw something, the brain and the hands work together.

Japanese traditional architecture is created based on these conditions. This is the reason you have a very high degree of connection between the outside and inside in architecture.

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.

You always want to try to make something new, and, of course, America is the world leader in economics today.

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.

Spiritual space is lost in gaining convenience. I saw the need to create a mixture of Japanese spiritual culture and modern western architecture.

You can't really say what is beautiful about a place, but the image of the place will remain vividly with you.

My hand is the extension of the thinking process - the creative process.

People tend not to use this word beauty because it's not intellectual - but there has to be an overlap between beauty and intellect.

The speed of change makes you wonder what will become of architecture.

At the same time, I would add that the American people have a lot of courage.

There is a role and function for beauty in our time.

I would like my architecture to inspire people to use their own resources, to move into the future.

All those involved in the construction of an architectural design, from the architect to the builder, have an attachment to the architecture, although it's difficult to quantify the attachment.

Japanese architecture is traditionally based on wooden structures that need renovating on a regular basis.

I don't look so closely at women's fashion, but from the 20th century on, people have had the freedom to express themselves and their individualities, and fashion is one of the most fundamental ways in which they do this, men and women are equally able to express themselves.

Without this spirit, Modernist architecture cannot fully exist. Since there is often a mismatch between the logic and the spirit of Modernism, I use architecture to reconcile the two.

Italy is full of historical buildings. And Europe holds a great history of philosophy from Greece until today. I read all those books and see these buildings, and I think of where I stand when I design my architecture.

But now, more and more, its society is concerned with economy and finance.