4.22.2022 | DIGS.NET 33
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R E S T O R E D | B O U R S E D E C O M M E R C E
Ando's challenge was to breathe new life into the building—one
with 10 exhibition spaces, an auditorium, a restaurant, and
a rediscovered engine room that was redesigned and its
machines restored—without revising the existing structure. "In
tackling the revitalization of the historic building," Ando notes,
"I sought to set up a vibrant space appropriate for a venue for
contemporary art by inserting, in a respectful manner, a new
space within the old walls etched with the memories of the city to
create a nestled composition that would spark a lively dialogue
between the old and new."
The project proves that Ando is an architect most at home in
vastness—the void. An extravagant example of his "haiku effect,"
Bourse de Commerce allowed Ando to use, as is his way, empty
space as a means to express the beauty of simplicity. It is a
space for contemplation. Of artwork, of one's thoughts about
it, and of many other ideas besides. It's poetry and pondering.
That type of architecture, that type of immensity. It's Ando.
A proponent of using geometry as a means of perfection, Ando
returns, time and again, to the circle. Round and round one goes
in the building. Between the concrete walls and internal façade
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