Water Temple (Honpukuji Temple)

Tadao Ando – Water Temple, Awaji, Hyōgo Japan, 1990-1991

The Temple of Water is located in the ancient city of Hompukuji, located in the northern part of the island of Awaji in Japan, and is present in a landscape dominated by hills and partially integrated without having its own identity.

As you get closer you see a fairly standard looking temple, but a sign directs you on a path that leads to a white gravel pitch, you have to go through a path between two curved concrete walls. This is the classic Ando, ​​it creates a space that changes radically as the sun crosses the sky and creates different forms of light and shadow at different times of the day.
Around the corner you come face to face with a large oval water surface that reflects the hills behind the temple.
Again this is the classic Ando, ​​as it often uses water surfaces to bring the natural environment into its architecture.
Lotus plants grow in the pool, an important symbol in Buddhism, in the summer many lotus flowers and water lilies float on the surface.

Main hall
The tub is divided in two by a staircase that descends into the darkness below. From here you follow a curved corridor which fills up more and more with reddish light until you reach the altar of the main sanctuary.
Here natural light enters the building from the western side, so in the late afternoon the red is even more vivid. In addition to the main altar there are also statues of Fudo Myo O and Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon, the Buddhist sect to which Honpukuji belongs.
After leaving the main sanctuary, the route passes through the displayed western side, where natural light pours through a vermilion lattice and returns to the starting point to climb the stairs.
This is one of Ando's less monumental works, the experience is not to look at a piece of architecture but rather to be in an architectural space.