The minimalist concrete architecture of Tadao Ando has roots both in Japanese traditions and in Western architecture. This book begins with both contexts: it explores how Ando unites Japanese tradition with a contemporary Western architectural idiom. By analyzing systematically and chronologically the roots and sources that have influenced the thinking of the Pritzker Prize–winning architect, the author communicates the principles and constants to which Ando’s buildings can be traced back, and at the same time he places them in the appropriate context within the architect’s characteristic ideas and intentions.