Japanese architect Tadao Ando's architecture makes its debut

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The Pearl Art Museum, which was designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, opened in Shanghai, following the "Tadao Ando: Leading" retrospective at the end of 2017 and the completion of his latest project: “Space of Light” in China.

Pearl Art Museum (L) and Xinhua Bookstore(R) /VCG Photo

"Space of Light" = A bookstore + An art museum

The two-story “Space of Light” – the name emphasizes light as the crucial element in the project – covers roughly 4,000 square meters of a shopping mall in Minhang District.

The complex consists of the Xinhua Bookstore on the 7th floor (1,620 m2) the Pearl Art Museum on the 8th floor (1,980 m2), and the core area is connected by oval-shaped architecture.

“It's just like covering a normal building with an ‘egg,’ creating new effects of light and shade inside. An egg symbolizes hope and life, and the design embraces the light of life,” noted Ando.

A view of bookshelves in the bookstore /ThePaper Photo

The bookstore’s outer space opened to the public on Dec. 16 last year – the Chinese publishing giant's 80th anniversary. Over 70% of the new building is an exhibition area which includes categories such as humanities, art, classics, children and more.

The architect hopes "Space of Light" will serve as a station for people to reconnect with books, or, as the artist himself said, "may reading shed light into peoples' hearts as light illuminates a room."

The art museum’s executive director Li Dandan said its inside was a commercial complex and “different from normal art spaces in shopping malls since it meets international standards”.

The exhibition wall shows Tadao Ando's woks and personal experience. /ThePaper Photo

Renowned architect’s retrospect exhibition

The five-section exhibition focuses on architectural models, videos, manuscripts and materials related to his masterpieces.

One of the highlights is a site model of Naoshima, an island with some 4,000 residents in Seto Inland Sea. For about three decades, Ando transformed the island into what Conde Nast Traveler magazine described as "one of the seven places in the world you should see next."

Tadao Ando /VCG Photo

Born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan, the self-taught architect won the Pritzker Prize for architecture, known as the Nobel Prize of architecture in 1995.

He has designed three buildings in Shanghai: The Aurora Museum, the Shanghai Poly Grand Theater and the Shanghai International Design Center.

Ando's other works include a prestigious church trilogy made up of the Church of Wind in Hyōgo, the Church of Light in Osaka and the Church of Water in Hokkaido, as well as the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, United States, and the restoration of Venice's old customs building.

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