Description

Ten rectangular sheets of Japanese paper, each with a separate sketch drawing, mounted to a Japanese paper accordion book. The sketches are drawn in black ink and colored with graphite and colored pencil. The main colors are blues, purples, and browns with some green, red, and gray details.

The drawings are all associated with “Festival” – a shopping center in Naha, Japan, completed in 1984. Naha, a small city on a coral island in Japan’s southern Okinawa Prefecture, was heavily damaged during World War II. Ando’s cube-shaped reinforced concrete building was based on a three-dimensional grid that contained open public space for dining, relaxation, and circulation, as well as retail and other commercial space. The open spaces, especially the roof terrace and stairs and escalators, were prominent features of the design. The exterior screen of perforated concrete blocks allowed for filtered natural light and ocean breezes to pass into the building. Every element of the 36m x 36m x 36m building was based on the module of a 20cm concrete block. Ando chose concrete blocks not only because they were familiar to local builders and were well suited to the climate, but also because, in his words, “I wanted to use one material in a very regular manner, giving the building order through geometry while simplifying the form as much as possible.”

Drawing 1: Seated Komainu sculpture (Japanese lion-dog) on a terra cotta roof over a stone wall.

Drawing 2: Crouching Komainu sculpture over many-pointed terra cotta roof. Below are four small, uncolored sketches labeled “Okinawa house”.

Drawing 3: View inside colonnade looking towards trees and another terra cotta roofed building. Above are many small detail sketches labeled “Okinawa”.

Drawing 4: Rough sketches of the overall building with some dimensions written in.

Drawing 5: Sketches of the overall building with some dimesons written in. This sheet is more detailed than number 4. There is a Komainu sculpture in the upper right.

Drawing 6: Depiction of the top of the cube-shaped, gridded building poking up above the tree line. The existing buildings of the city are in the background.

Drawing 7: Composite drawing showing several views of the building with prominent staircases and escalators. A small sketch in the lower right shows “open space” in the building.

Drawing 8: Twelve small square sketches of the building arranged in a 4 by 3 grid. Labeled “blue sky”, “open space”, and other notes in Japanese.

Drawing 9: Abstracted sketch of two figures wearing green robes and blue and purple-red hats.

Drawing 10: Detail view of a purple band running through blue background, possibly depicting fabric.

Further reading:

- “Edificio Festival: Naha, Okinawa, Japón,” Arquitectura 65, no. 248 (1984): 14–17.

- Wiel Arets, “Gold for Tadao Ando,” Wiederhall 1 (1986): 25–33.

- Tadao Ando, “Tadao Ando (Building Essay),” Harvard Architecture Review 7 (1989): 132–137.

- Darell Wayne Fields (ed.), “Tadao Ando: Dormant Lines” (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 1991).

Additional Information

Provenance: Max Protetch Gallery, New York; Martin E. Zimmerman.