Top 30 Tadao Ando Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I don’t believe architecture has to speak too much. It should remain silent and let nature in the guise of sunlight and wind.”

— Tadao Ando

2. “As long as you have an objective in your mind you are young.”

— Tadao Ando

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

— Tadao Ando

4. “We borrow from nature the space upon which we build.”

— Tadao Ando

5. “In all my works, light is an important controlling factor.”

— Tadao Ando

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

— Tadao Ando

7. “The level of detail and craft is something that’s inscribed within the original design concept. And so when I begin to draw, I know what kind of detailing I want the building to have.”

— Tadao Ando

8. “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.”

— Tadao Ando

9. “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.”

— Tadao Ando

10. “My objective is to design a space that nobody else can come up with while using the material that anyone can use.”

— Tadao Ando

11. “I think architecture becomes interesting when it has a double character, that is, when it is as simple as possible but, at the same time as complex as possible.”

— Tadao Ando

12. “If you give people nothingness, they can ponder what can be achieved from that nothingness.”

— Tadao Ando

13. “It wasn’t that I had any great dream of being an architect. I just wanted to make things. Whether it was furniture, painting, interior design, or architecture. I just wanted to create something.”

— Tadao Ando

14. “I think everyone needs a goal. And what kind of goal will be important. And for that we have to study and we have to be intelligent.”

— Tadao Ando

15. “I like ruins because what remains is not the total design, but the clarity of thought, the naked structure, the spirit of the thing.”

— Tadao Ando

16. “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.”

— Tadao Ando

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

— Tadao Ando

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

— Tadao Ando

19. “I want to create a space that moves people. It doesn’t matter if it is a house, or a museum, or whatever. So, it is somebody sitting on that lawn, just going around and around and feeling really happy. That is something that I’m striving for.”

— Tadao Ando

20. “All architecture has a public nature, I believe, so I would like to make a public space.”

— Tadao Ando

21. “If there is only one culture all over the world, that’s not a good thing.”

— Tadao Ando

22. “People tend not to use this word beauty because it’s not intellectual – but there has to be an overlap between beauty and intellect.”

— Tadao Ando

23. “In Architecture there is a part that is the result of Logical Reasoning and a part that is created through the Senses. There is always a point where they Clash. I don’t think Architecture can be created without that Collision.”

— Tadao Ando

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

— Tadao Ando

25. “I think that capitalism has just gone too far. And it is actually not limited to the United States. The excesses of capitalism is making us suffer all over the world right now.”

— Tadao Ando

26. “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.”

— Tadao Ando

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

— Tadao Ando

28. “There are self-made millionaires – their aspiration is first to make money. But the once that goal is achieved, they have to look for something and sometimes they become patrons of art or museums. And that is how the world should go.”

— Tadao Ando

29. “I take the museum space also as sacred in a sense.”

— Tadao Ando

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

— Tadao Ando

31. “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.”

— Tadao Ando

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

— Tadao Ando

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

— Tadao Ando

34. “Since I am a Japanese man who’s been building through the experience of Japanese architecture, my actual designs come from Japanese architectural concepts, although they’re based on Western methods and materials.”

— Tadao Ando