I recently attended Tadao Ando’s first lecture in Singapore, titled “Asia on The Move” on 20 February 2013 at the National University of Singapore EduSports University Town Auditorium.
To be honest, the lecture was quite a disappointment after seeing many of Ando‘s stunning works around the world. I expected him to give an inspiring talk about the way he creates architecture, but was dumbfounded by a haphazard array of incongruous, non-architectural rantings which significantly diminished my respect for one of the most legendary architects of all time. He spent much of the time bragging about his accomplishments: I’d much rather hear about his concept, design strategy, methodology, and architectural techniques behind the Church of the Light than him bragging about the prize money he received. The short time he spent discussing his current projects made me sad to realise that one of the most renowned architectural master seems to have sold out to the whims of developers: I think he spent more time talking about money and his famous friends about architecture.
He gave the lecture in Japanese, which made me think that the translation could have diluted his message. However, my Japanese colleague who had seen Ando lecture before confirmed that the English translation was quite good, and that Ando was quite famous in Japan for these kind of talks.
Never thought I would ever speak a negative word about Ando! In fact, one of my recent posts is a raving review of Ando’s Garden of Fine Arts, which I called “one of the most spectacular architectural sites I’ve ever visited”. But enough criticism, I’ve posted the video below so you can judge for yourself! Let me know in the comments what you think.
The lecture hall of nearly 500 seats sold out online in minutes, leaving many disappointed architects. The sign reads: “Tadao Ando, we love youuu xoxo … but you didn’t let us in 🙁
Images and Video by Jonathan Choe
