THE TEATRINO OF PALAZZO GRASSI BY TADAO ANDO

Punta della Dogana strengthens its implementation within the artistic and cultural life of Venice thanks to the Teatrino, a new location dedicated to conferences, talks, screenings, and concerts.

After the restoration of Palazzo Grassi in 2006, followed by that of Punta della Dogana in 2009, the rehabilitation of the Teatrino in 2013 marks the third step of François Pinault’s cultural project in Venice.

Conceived and executed by Tadao Ando in close collaboration with the Municipality of Venice and the competent authorities and services, this restoration maintains the spirit of architectural continuity of the preceding renovations. With a 1,000 square-meter surface, the Teatrino is equipped with an auditorium of 225 seats, two foyers, and spaces for technical equipment (boxes, equipment for stage management and simultaneous translation, etc.).

The architect Tadao Ando worked from the existing plan of the building and kept unaltered both the external position of the walls and their consistency. The roof was transformed into a unified and uniform slope. The resulting outer shape is a uniform rectangle shaped only on the front and rear to leave unchanged the original state of the external structure.

Tadao Ando inserted inside an entirely new volume that defines the area for theatrical performances and screenings and, giving an architectural shape to the space – it stands out like a new work of art that confronts the historical context in which it is placed.

This new structure defines two main areas that characterize the functional and architectural restoration project of the Teatrino: the first is an auditorium with a stage, a backstage with a technical room and a flight of steps with seats for the audience.

The second is a foyer characterized by its large triangular openings on the walls that allows the free coming and going between the foyer and the adjoining areas, and by the large triangular skylight that brings natural light inside the building. The control room, the translation booths and a storage area are located on an intermediate floor reachable by a side staircase.

The vertical structures within the building were achieved by integrating the existing steel pillars, located along the perimeter and restored, with new steel structures, designed according to a curved line (the “twist” walls of the project). These pillars not only support the vertical load of the roof but also the walls specially created to guarantee that the auditorium is perfectly soundproof.

Location: Venice, Italy

Architect: Tadao Ando

Total Surface: 1000 m2

Seats: 225

2 Foyer: 115m2 and 90m2

Year: 2013

TOM FORD'S RANCH BY TADAO ANDO

In the arid lands of Santa Fe, in New Mexico, is this almost 24,000 acre ranch designed by Tadao Ando for Tom Ford, the famous fashion designer (he was creative director for Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent) and film director, who in his youth also studied architecture.

The designer had commissioned a project, fifteen years ago, to Alberto Campo Baeza, but it was not approved by the authorities of New Mexico. Finally Ford again took up the idea of a ranch, this time commissioning Tadao Ando.

Sitting on a 24,000-acre property, this ranch, designed by the award-winning architect, provides a fully equipped equine facility and stunning expansive views for fashion designer, film director, and (apparently) cowboy Tom Ford.

Introducing bold geometry and his signature stoic concrete walls into the New Mexico landscape, Ando envelopes and highlights portions of barren land and turns them into monumental ‘scapes of form and light.

Inserted in the impressive landscape that surrounds the American city where Ford spent much of his childhood, concrete walls form the bold geometries enclosing the equestrian facilities designed by the Japanese architect.

The rustic color palette of the surrounding landscape permeates into the complex, filling the space with burnt tones of the soil and the heavy blues of the sky and water. Add Ando’s skillful control of circulation to the mix, and you essentially have a sprawling chapel in the desert.

The architect does, after all, admit to approaching religious and residential buildings the same way, saying that “dwelling in a house is not only a functional issue, but also a spiritual one.”

Ford admitted the importance of nature in his life: “If you spend time on our ranch or in the American West or anywhere in nature, all of a sudden, all the things you worry about all the time fade away. That’s why one of the greatest problems with where we are culturally at this time is that we’ve all lost touch with the earth and that which is really important in the world.”

Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico

Architect:Tadao Ando

Site: 24,000 acre

Year: 2012

Client: Tom Ford

Photography: Guido Mocafico

CENTRO ROBERTO GARZA SADA BY TADAO ANDO

Recentemente è stato inaugurato il Centro Roberto Garza Sada, nuovo polo universitario per l’Arte, l’Architettura e il Design dell’UDEM, l’Università di Monterrey in Messico.

È il primo progetto di dell’architetto giapponese Tadao Ando, Premio Pritzker nel 1995, in America Latina concluso dopo 5 anni dalla posa della prima pietra nel 2008.

La forma prismatica è una volumetria imponente con 6 livelli in cemento armato che è stata anche denominata la Porta della Creazione, in inglese “the gate of creation”, per la presenza di un grande arco a livello del terreno.

Una forma che si ispira al Torri giapponese, l’arco che nella tradizione scintoista che viene posto all’ingresso del santuario come elemento che distingue il sacro dal profano, rappresentato generalmente da due colonne con due travi parallele.

Analogamente nel Centro di Tadao Ando rappresenta un simbolo, depurato da ogni valenza religiosa, che eleva lo spirito del luogo per accogliere ed “aprire le porte” ad una nuova generazione di designer latinoamericani.

Nella sua forma monumentale, l’arco è rappresentato in contrapposizione alla imponente mole dell’edificio come una morbida vela definita dalla trama di superfici rigate che si arcuano per evidenziare l’ingresso del campus universitario.

L’arco è una geometria complessa formata da una torsione su entrambi i lati maggiori dell’edificio con una grande apertura che poggia da livelli differenti, da un lato ancorata su una collina artificiale, e che incornicia il paesaggio della Sierra Madre, con il Cerro de las Mitras e la Huasteca.

Esternamente l’edificio risulta chiuso e senza aperture tranne delle finestre a nastro, 3 file su un lato e 4 sull’altro, come tagli orizzontali degradanti che interrompono la volumetria monumentale chiusa.

All’interno lo spazio è organizzato attorno a vuoti e piani con scale e volumi che si snodano come fosse un “ventilatore” con una serie ben distribuita di giocosi origami che non lascia un solo spazio senza un bagno di luce.

Al centro sono presenti due agorà, una rivolta a est e l’altra a ovest con una veranda verso la Huasteca, dove gli studenti possono discutere con i loro insegnanti e vivere nel tempo libero. Come architetto autodidatta Tadao Ando ha voluto far un omaggio a quei luoghi carichi di forza e pace, capaci di convertirla in creatività e ispirazione.

 

 

 

 

 

Location: Monterrey, Mexico 

Architect: Tadao Ando 

Area: 113.115 mq 

Client: UDEM