ARCHITECTURE

SAMURAI ARCHITECT TADAO ANDO

Direction Shigenori Mizuno

Photography Ryu Aritomi, Minoru Fukutomi

Editing Herbert Hunger

Produzione NHK Enterprises

Japan, 2015, 73', Japanese, English subtitles

Tadao Ando is a world-renowned architect and the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the profession’s highest honor. He has captivated people around the globe with elegant concrete designs that reflect the Zen principle of simplicity. In sharp contrast to Ando’s refined minimalist creations, the 73 year-old former boxer and self-taught architect has an aggressive personality, a sharp tongue and a unique sense of humor. These seemingly contradictory traits add to his appeal, and when combined with his disciplined work ethic and his keen aesthetic sense, they help to explain why he has been called the “Samurai Architect.” This documentary follows Ando over a period of one year and unveils his creative process. Here is the definitive portrait of the man known as the Samurai Architect.