NOTHINGNESS: Tadao Ando’s Christian Sacred Space

Description

Based around an interview with Tadao Ando, this book explores the influence of the Buddhist concept of nothingness on Ando’s Christian architecture, and sheds new light on the cultural significance of the buildings of one of the world’s leading contemporary architects.Specifically, this book situates Ando’s churches, particularly his world-renowned Church of the Light (1989), within the legacy of nothingness expounded by Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945), the father of the Kyoto Philosophical School.
Linking Ando’s Christian architecture with a philosophy originating in Mahayana Buddhism illuminates the relationship between the two religious systems, as well as tying Ando’s architecture to the influence of Nishida on post-war Japanese art and culture.

CONTENTS

Part 1: Emptiness and Christianity

• Emptiness within Christianity
• Return to Emptiness

Part 2: The School of Things (Mono-ha) and its Criticism of Modernity

• The Emergence of the School of Things and Space Design
• The School of Things and Anti-Semiotics
• The School of Things and Nothingness

Part 3: Nothingness, Shintai and Christian Theology

• Kitaro Nishida’s Philosophy of Nothingness
• Nothingness and Shintai
• Nothingness and Christian Theology

Part 4: Emptiness and the Cross

• Emptiness and the Demise of Symbols
• The Cross between Romanticism and Barbarism
• Emptiness Filled with Situational Appearance
• Metaphysical Light and Phenomenological Light
• Dark, Light and Gold

Part 5: Emptiness, the Cross and Shintai

• Shintai and Corporeality of Architectural Elements
• Body Attuned
• The Penetrating Light and the Cross in Efficacy
• Seeing in Emptiness
• Beyond Solitude
• The Sublime

Conclusion Part 6: Interview with Tadao Ando

212 pages / 19 x 24,5 cm / English