Church of the Light

Tadao Ando’s small church in Ibaraki is a concrete box. Behind the altar two slits cut through the wall and form a cross of light. The room is almost completely dark, and the light becomes the only ornament.

A Protestant congregation in Ibaraki, a suburb of Osaka, wanted to build a new church on a small budget. Tadao Ando, a self-taught architect, was given the commission, and the church was finished in 1989. Ando wanted the materials to be as simple as possible and left the concrete exposed. He proposed that the cross should be open without glass, but the congregation wanted glass to keep out the cold.

The church is a rectangular concrete box cut by a free-standing wall at an angle of 15 degrees. The wall leads visitors in. Behind the altar the wall has two slits forming a cross, through which the light streams in. The floor and the pews are of dark wood, and the floor slopes down towards the altar. The concrete is cast with great precision and has visible tie holes from the formwork, a hallmark of Ando’s. A Sunday school was built next to it in 1999.

The Church of the Light has become Ando’s best-known work. He received the Pritzker Prize in 1995. The church shows how a few elements, concrete, light and darkness, can create a powerful spiritual experience, and it has influenced architects all over the world.

• Contemporary architecture
• Tadao Ando