Tadao Ando, was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1941. A self-taught architect, he spent time in Kyoto and Nara, studying for himself the great implications of traditional Japanese architecture. Between 1962 and 1969 he traveled to the United States, Europe and Africa to study Western architecture, history and technologies. His studies of traditional and modern Japanese architecture have had a profound influence on his work and have resulted in a unique blend of these rich traditions.
In 1969 he founded Tadao Ando Architect and Associates in Osaka. He is an honorary member of architecture academies in six countries. He has been a visiting professor at Yale, Columbia, and Harvard. In 1997 he became Professor of Architecture at the University of Tokyo.
Ando has received numerous architectural awards, including the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995, the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal in 2002, as well as the 2002 Kyoto Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in the Arts and Philosophy. His buildings can be seen in Japan, Europe, the United States and India.
In the fall of 2001, following up on the comprehensive master plan commissioned by Cooper, Robertson & Associates in the 1990s and completed in 2001, Tadao Ando was selected to develop an architectural master plan for the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to expand its premises and improve its 140-acre campus.
