Few of Tadao Ando's represent the architect's contribution to Japanese culture better than his Water Temple:



more than a building, it is a sensorial experience representing a radical change in the age-old tradition of Japanese temple architecture.

In terms of form, materials and spatial sequences, the Water Temple is far removed from the classic wooden Buddhist temple, but what Ando's building shares with the traditional temple is a mystic quality of space. Among the bamboo woods, the mountains, the rice paddies and the sea, the temple appears like a pool of lotus flowers enclosed in a thin oval-shaped skin of concrete and sheltered from view by smooth wings of cement.