The Azuma House was one of Tadao Ando's earliest works. It is a concrete box split into daily living spaces around a central open-air courtyard. The courtyard acts as a hub, separating the living room from the kitchen/dining area and bathroom. Upstairs, bedrooms are located on either side of the courtyard, accessible by a bridge. The house shows a blind facade to the street with only a door indicating use of the space within.

1. Azuma House,
Tadao Ando
Ting Wong , Ka Tong

2. Tadao Ando ,安藤 忠雄
•Sep. 13 1941, Osaka, Japan.
•Has led a Storied life
•Japanese architect ,Critical Regionalism
•Characterized by complete-dimensional circulation paths
•In 1995 won the Pritzker Architecture Prize

3. Tadao Ando- Works
the pulitzer
foundation for
the arts
giorgio armani (saint louis art
museum), saint church of the japan pavillion,
headquater
louis, usa light, osaka, expo '92, sevilla,
theater, milan,
courtesy of japan spain
italy
tadao ando courtesy of courtesy of
courtesy of
architect & tadao ando tadao ando
giorgio armani
associates architect & architect &
spa
associates associates
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4. fabrica
(benetton model of the
sayamaike communications naoshima modern art
historical research center), contemporary museum
museum, osaka, treviso, italy art museum, of fort worth,
japan courtesy of kagawa, japan texas
courtesy of tadao ando courtesy of courtesy of
tadao ando architect & tadao ando tadao ando
architect & associates architect & architect &
associates associates associates
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5. Times Gallery
The Church of the Light
Langen Foundation

6. Azuma House 住吉の長屋
• Introduction
• One of the earliest works
of the self-taught architect
Tadao Ando is the Azuma
House in Sumiyoshi, where
the house is split into a
spaces devoted to daily life
(composed of an austere
geometry) by the insertion
of an abstract space for
the games of wind and
light. His goal, he says,
was to introduce a
question on the inertia that
has invaded human
dwellings.

7. • Situation
• Located in Sumiyoshi,
Osaka, Azuma House
replaces one of the
traditional houses in the
area built in wood. While
this area is not the most
chaotic of the city, there
is a clear contrast
between this "concrete
box" and its surrounding
buildings.
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8. • Concept
• Built between medians, this
apartment is perched on a lot
of 57.3 m². The total square
fottage of 64.7 m² is divided
into three equal sections: two
floors and a patio.
• This box of concrete occupies
the entire site. The building,
centripetal as far as its
organization, has a tripartite
structure centered around an
uncovered patio.
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9. • Materials
• The reinforced concrete
used in this house is
presented as the
ornamentation for the
facade.
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10. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=5wGUIol3bko

11. • Spaces
• On the ground floor are located
the living room and a kitchen,
separated by the central outside
courtyard and the staircase that
leads to the upper floor, where
the two bedrooms are joined by
a walkway. The central
uncovered area is the only
source of natural light
throughout the house.
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12. • The courtyard, which acts as the hub
of daily life in the house, separates
the living room located at one end
of the ground floor from the
kitchen-dining room and bathroom,
located in another end. On the top
floor, the children's rooms on one
side face the master bedroom on the
other side of the central courtyard,
which is reached by a bridge. The
building shows a blind or solid
facade to the street. The presence of
a door suggests the use of this box.
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13. • There is a strong similarity
among these four facades. The
first building (1) is, of course, the
famous Azuma House by Tadao
Ando. The rest of the three
buildings (2, 3 & 4) were
designed by a much younger
generation of architects. Ando’s
Azuma House was epoch-making
in the history of Japanese design,
but I doubt if it had any influence
on these younger architects. The
resemblance is merely superficial
when you see what is going on on
the other side. Check it out by
yourself.
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