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Church of the Light

Church of the Light

Tadao Ando

Photo: taken by Bergmann · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Client / Owner
Ibaraki Kasugaoka Church
Year
Completed 1989
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual

The Church of the Light in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, was designed by Tadao Ando and built in 1989 for the Ibaraki Kasugaoka Church, a member of the United Church of Christ in Japan. A 1999 extension added a Sunday school. It was added to an existing wooden chapel and minister's house.

The article ties the design to Zen philosophy and says its thick walls depart from Modernist architecture. Three 19-foot (5.9 m) concrete cubes form a hall 58 feet (17.7 m) long, with a main concrete shell 15 inches (38 cm) thick. Benches and floorboards reuse construction scaffolding. The floor area is about 1,216 square feet (113 m²).

A cross cut into the concrete behind the altar admits daylight, and the interior is deliberately empty. Funding was short, but the construction firm donated the roof, so the planned roofless design was not needed. The article gives no visiting hours.

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