Tadao Ando's "head-out Buddha" creates ample opportunities for reflection, both spiritual and literal

2017-08-03T13:39:00-04:00

While Tadao Ando has built religious structures before--famously, the Church of the Light--he has rarely worked with figurative icons of religion, preferring a more abstract approach. This has changed with his open-air prayer hall in the Makomanai Takinoreien Cemetery in Sapporo, Japan, where a previously unsheltered statue of the Buddha has now been reverently housed in Ando's masterful design.

Image: Shigeo Ogawa/Makomanai Takinoreien Cemetery

Prior to Ando, the 44-foot-tall statue had been sitting in a field for 15 years without any additional ornamentation. The scale and placement of the Buddha served less as a spiritual inspiration than a lonely beacon, prompting the commission of Ando to create a suitable home for the Buddha. The resulting open-air prayer hall both shelters the Buddha without disrupting its connection to the sky.

Image: Shigeo Ogawa/Makomanai Takinoreien Cemetery

From afar, visitors can't see the Buddha, only a landscaped exterior shell. Once they enter the tem...

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Tadao Ando's "head-out Buddha" creates ample opportunities for reflection, both spiritual and literal