The artist Bosco Sodi’s home and studio, in Oaxaca, Mexico, 2014.

The Church in the Forest, in Yeoju, South Korea, 2015.

*Top,* the Bourse de Commerce, in Paris, 2021; *above,* the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, in St. Louis, 2001.

The Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum, in Higashiōsaka, Japan, 2001.

*Top,* a private home in Monterrey, Mexico, 2011; *above,* the Chichu Art Museum, in Naoshima, Japan, 2004.

The Roberto Garza Sada Center, at the University of Monterrey, 2012.

The Langen Foundation, on the grounds of the Museum Insel Hombroich, in Neuss, Germany, 2004.

Tadao Ando’s Lessons in Light

From Paris to Osaka to St. Louis, a new coffee-table book collects the Japanese architect’s bright, delicate designs, photographed by Richard Pare

Over 50 years ago, Tadao Ando watched people at prayer within Le Corbusier’s Notre-Dame du Haut, a Roman Catholic chapel. A blinding ray of light poured down from above, illuminating the congregation. “It was a sublime yet gentle light that embraced the praying souls,” Ando said. “I knew then that this was the scenery of hearts I had been striving for—and that architecture could be realized solely through aspiration toward the light.”

Ever since, Ando has upheld a principle of delicacy. Space, he has said, is “as delicate as silk fabric.”