Atelier in Oyodo II (大淀のアトリエII)
Toyosaki, Kita-ku, Osaka
Sources checked October 2026
- Year
- 1991
- Architect
- Tadao Ando
- Type
- Architecture office (workplace)
- Access
- Working headquarters of Tadao Ando's practice, closed to the public (October 2026)
Since 1991, Tadao Ando's practice has worked in this concrete building of five storeys above ground and two below, raised where Tomishima House once stood. Every floor faces a void taken up by the staircase, under a skylight. It replaces the atelier set up on the plot in 1981 and extended in stages.
History
The plot first held Tomishima House (富島邸), completed in 1973. Tadao Ando later turned it into his atelier: it became Atelier in Oyodo I in 1981, then was extended in 1982 and again in 1986. In 1991 the present building replaced it. It takes up the shape of its predecessor and fills the whole plot.
In 2016 a last extension, first conceived as a guesthouse, opened on a site across the street.
Architecture
The building has five storeys above ground and two below, with 451.7 m2 of floor area. The staircase takes up the east side and forms the core of the composition: each floor opens onto this void, which is capped by a skylight bringing daylight deep into the building.
The previous atelier was fragmented; this one forms a single composition instead, with no fixed use for any space, so the place stays fluid.
Use today
It is the headquarters of Ando's practice. The stair void sometimes doubles as a lecture hall: the speaker stands in the stair tower while the audience sits on the staggered floors.
Toyosaki, Kita-ku, Osaka
