Philippe Starck describes him as a "mystic in a country which is no longer mystic." Philip Drew calls his buildings "land art" that "struggle to emerge from the earth." He is the only architect to have won the discipline's four most prestigious prizes: the Pritzker, Carlsberg, Praemium Imperiale, and Kyoto Prize. His name is Tadao Ando, and he is the world's greatest living architect. Combining influences from Japanese tradition with the best of Modernism, Ando has developed a completely unique building aesthetic that makes use of concrete, wood, water, light, space, and nature in a way that has never been witnessed in architecture. Ando has designed award-winning private homes, churches, museums, apartment complexes, and cultural spaces throughout Japan, as well as in France, Italy, Spain, and the USA. This book, created at the height of
Ando's illustrious career, presents his complete works to date.

The author:
Philip Jodidio studied art history and economics at Harvard University, and was Editor-in-Chief of the French journal Connaissance des Arts for over two decades. He has published numerous articles and books, including TASCHEN's Architecture Now! volumes I and II, Building a New Millennium, and monographs on Norman Foster, Richard Meier, and Alvaro Siza. Jodidio is internationally renowned as one of the most talented writers on the subject of architecture.

Editions:
English/French/German: 3-8228-2164-0 (December 2004)
Italian/Spanish/Portuguese: 3-8228-2989-7 (December 2004)

Reviews:
"If you want an example of how architecture influences the homes we live in, look no further than TASCHEN's new book on the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. If there's one man responsible for making concrete sexy again it's this guy".
Independent on Saturday Magazine, London
United Kingdom