Tadao Ando,
UIA 2005 Gold Medalist

In creating this medal in 1984, the UIA sought to endow it with a prestige equivalent to that of the Nobel Prize in the fields of art, literature, science and the humanities. This unique distinction ,international and free of any vested interests whatsoever, national or private, is the supreme recognition that an architect can receive from his fellowarchitects. It is awarded during an architect's lifetime, in homage of the realisations and contributions made throughout his career in favour of humanity, society and the promotion of the art of architecture.

Since it creation, the Gold Medal has been awarded successively to:
• Hassan Fathy (Egypt), in 1984;
• Reima Pietila (Finland), in 1987;
• Charles Correa (India), in 1990;
• Fumihiko Maki (Japan), in 1993;
• Rafael Moneo (Spain), in 1996;
• Ricardo Legorreta Vilchis (Mexico), in 1999
• Renzo Piano (Italy), in 2002

The jury for the 2005 Gold Medal met in Shanghai from 18 to 20 April 2005. Presided by Jaime Lerner (Brazil), UIA President, it was composed as follows: Vassilis Sgoutas (Greece) Past President, Jean Claude Riguet (France), Secretary General, Donald J. Hackl (USA) Treasurer, Gaetan Siew (Mauritius), 1 st Vice-President, José Cortes Delgado (Mexico, 2 nd Vice-President, Louise Cox (Australia), Vice-President, Wolf Tochtermann (Germany), Director of the International Competitions Programme and Jordi Farrando (Spain) representing Peter Hanna (Ireland) Vice-President. The jury decided to award the 2005 Gold Medal to the Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

The UIA Gold Medal will be presented to Tadao Ando at a ceremony that will take place in Istanbul, on 6 th July 2005, during the twenty-second UIA Congress.

Tadao Ando was born in Osaka, in 1941. Brought up by his maternal grandmother, he grew up between the fields of the urban periphery and carpenters' workshops where he learned wood working and constructed model aeroplanes and boats.

At the age of 17, following a brief career as a boxer, Tadao Ando decided to become an architect. Self-educated, he visited the Temples of Nara and Kyoto, discovered Le Corbusier, who fascinated him, and then from 1962 to 1969 he travelled in Europe, the United States and Africa. On his return, he founded his own office in Osaka where he designed small houses in wood, interiors and furniture. In 1975, he designed the Sumiyoshi Row House in Osaka, winner of the Japanese Association of Architecture Award. From then on things moved quickly and his reputation grew, both in Japan and around the world where he has been presented with the most prestigious awards. Highly considered by his peers, he teaches at the University of Tokyo.

In 1995, he received the prestigious Pritzker Prize, in the steps of his fellow countrymen Kenzo Tange and Fumihiko Maki. Deeply moved by the Kobe earthquake which, that year, had cruelly damaged the neighbourhood where his early works were located, he donated the prize-money to the city's orphans.

His mastery of construction materials, reinforced concrete to which he gives a silky touch, wood which he uses with virtuosity, glass, water, light, make of him an inspired master of architectural construction and design. The imprint of his expertise and his lyricism may be witnessed in private houses, temples and museums, as well as in ambitious programmes like the renovation of Kobe or vast cultural complexes in the United States.

In the mid 70’s young Tadao Ando emerged dramatically onto the international architectural scene with a tiny little urban row house in Sumiyoshi, Osaka.

He created there a micro-cosmos, a space of extreme simplicity, abstract and rich, through a perfect relationship with the surrounding environment, treated with the greatest concern for detail, and a sensitive building quality in the use of exposed reinforced concrete.

Since then he has been creating the original Ando style of poetic architecture and delivering it to the world with architectural talent and sensitivity regardless of the genre and scale of the projects. Recent accomplishment includes the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

His tireless and powerful passion have been enhancing his ideals through his simple, strong and beautiful architecture as well as on the socio-cultural level, practising throughout the world both as a architect and a teacher. His tremendous contribution to global contemporary architecture, architects and even non-architects , make him, without any doubt, a deserving recipient of the Gold Medal of UIA.