[Special Lecture Series for I-House Members]
Creation of an Attractive City

  • This event now concluded.
  • Speaker: Tadao ANDO (Architect)
  • Moderator: Tomoko KUBOTA (Independent Journalist)
  • Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2019, 6:00–7:15 pm (Cocktail party: 7:15–8:00 pm)
  • Venue: Iwasaki Koyata Memorial Hall, International House of Japan
  • Language: Japanese (without interpretation)
  • Admission: 3,000 yen for IHJ members (6,000 yen for non-members)
  • Registration deadline: Friday, June 7, 5:00 pm (JST)
    *Participants will be selected by lottery.

This year, I-House is holding special talk events and meetings exclusively for IHJ members, inviting world-renowned individuals as guest speakers. Our first guest will be the prominent architect Ando Tadao. In commemoration of the program kickoff, we will be opening it to the public. Following the talk, there will be a cocktail party. We hope it would be a good opportunity for all participants to deepen friendships among one and another.

Tadao ANDO (Architect)


Photo: Ando Tadao

Photo: Kanno Kinji

Born in Osaka. Established Tadao Ando Architect and Associates after studying architecture by himself. Important works include the Church of Light, Fabrica (Benetton Art School), Pulitzer Arts Foundation, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Chichu Art Museum, Omotesando Hills, Punta della Dogana, Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

Received the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize (1979), Alvar Aalto Medal (1985), Gold Medal of the Academy of Architecture of France (1989), Japan Art Academy Prize (1993), Asahi Prize (1995), Pritzker Architecture Prize (1995), Praemium Imperiale Award (1996), AIA Gold Medal (2002), Kyoto Prize (2002), UIA Gold Medal (2005), L’ordre national de la légion d’honneur (Chevalier) (2005), Distinguished Service Award for Environment Preservation from the Minister of Environment (2006), Gold Medal for Fine Arts from the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts (2010), Shimpei Goto Award (2010), Order of Culture (2010), Richard Neutra Award (2012), L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Commandeur) (2013), Grande Ufficiale del’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (2015), and the Isamu Noguchi Award (2016).

Served as Deputy Chairman of the Reconstruction Design Council in Response to the Great East Japan Earthquake and Committee Chairman of the Momo-Kaki Orphans Fund since 2011.

Taught at universities in the United States including Yale University, Columbia University, and Harvard University as guest professor as well as at the University of Tokyo from 1997 to 2003. Became professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo in 2003.

His publications include Kenchiku-o kataru [Talking about Architecture], Rensen renpai [Losing Many Battles], Kenchikuka Ando Tadao [Architect Tadao Ando], Shigoto o tsukuru [Creating Work], and TADAO ANDO Insight Guide: Ando Tadao to sono kioku [Tadao Ando and His Memories].

His exhibition TADAO ANDO: ENDEAVORS (National Art Center Tokyo, 2017) received 300,000 visitors. From October to December 2018, TADAO ANDO: LE DÉFI was held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Tomoko KUBOTA (Independent Journalist)


Photo: Kubota Tomoko

Ms. Kubota joined Tokyo Broadcasting (TBS) in 2000 where she became an announcer and worked on various programs, including Dobutsu kisotengai! [Amazing Animals!], Tetsuya Chikushi News 23, and Hodo Tokushu [Special News]. From 2013, she held appointments across the news bureau and served as a correspondent with the New York Bureau, as well as a political reporter at TBS. In 2017 she became a freelancer and in 2019 she obtained an MA in oral history from Columbia University. She is currently in a doctoral program at the University of Tokyo where she further pursues her research on oral history.