Ando and his students at Tokyo University made models of all 106 of Le Corbusier's houses and donated them to the Fondation Le Corbusier, which is housed in the Maisons La Roche-Jeanneret. Making the models brought home how much thought had been put into every little corner of Le Corbusier's residential architecture to make the homes livable, even to the extent of providing holes to catch condensation drips.
In April 1965, Ando was delayed for a few days in Marseille waiting for a ship to Africa on his way home from traveling round Europe, and this gave him the opportunity to visit Unité d'habitation, Marseille several times. Children were playing around the pilotis supports that lift Unité off the ground, and in the rooftop garden. Ando was deeply impressed by the way that the architecture itself acted as a clear advocate of the architectural concepts it was designed to promote. He explained his belief that although architecture physically degrades over time, the approach behind it must not be allowed to degrade.
He also gave a number of other insights, including pointing out that we owe to André Malraux the fact that we can still see Villa Savoye today.
Both for Row House in Sumiyoshi, Osaka (1976), and for an earlier project in Kobe that posed the question of how to build on a home that had been passed down through generations, Ando had wanted to create architecture like that of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye. His designs included bare concrete, a lack of cooling or heating, and the need to pass through an outdoor courtyard to reach the toilet, incorporating nature into the architecture and utilizing natural stone for the floors and parts that would come into contact with hands.
Inspired by the light effects employed by Le Corbusier in Ronchamp, Ando put his ideas to work in Chichu Art Museum (2004), utilizing light to make the architecture work in an underground context where there is no visible external form.
For Church of the Light (1989), the budget was so tight that Ando's initial plans called for a structure without a roof, and with the cutout cross that let in the light also letting in the wind. Ando was attempting to produce a place where worshippers could feel the natural elements as they gathered for contemplation. In the end, however, the church gained a roof, and glass was used to keep driving rain from entering through the cross. The scaffolding planks used in the construction were recycled to produce the flooring inside the church. Ando explains the broad-ranging interest in this project as being due to it using nothing other than light to assert its character.
Rokko Housing One (1983) was constructed on a site having a 60-degree slope and an active seismic fault along the bottom of the slope. The original request was for design of collective housing on the flat land at the bottom, but recalling Le Corbusier's sketches for housing on inclines, Ando agreed to take on the project if he could construct housing that followed the profile of the slope. His resulting design included a pool at the very best location on the site as a place where people would gather. From this starting point, Ando made a proposal to develop the whole area for slope housing, and took the project successfully to completion (Rokko Housing I-IV).
When Le Corbusier moved to Paris from La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland, he struggled at first because he lacked formal training from a school of architecture. Eventually, though, his own ideas won through, and he gained a reputation as a unique architect. Ando commented that when people are young, it's OK for them to have failures. As they grow, pushing through their own ideas and questioning their own approaches, the light begins to appear at the end of the tunnel.
Ando then introduced his work on the island of Naoshima as an example of a project that is intimately linked with the natural environment. Naoshima had been polluted by sulfur dioxide, so when Ando received the request to create an art gallery, the first step was to start collecting 1,000 yen donations for the purpose of greening the island. Planting saplings purchased with the donated funds has now resulted in the island recovering a great deal of its greenery. Nature can be destroyed by human activity, but human activity can also restore it. The island is now the location of the Benesse Art Site Naoshima. Explaining his belief that curiosity is the source of energy, Ando introduced works at Naoshima by Ohtake Shinro, Kusama Yayoi, Richard Long, Miyajima Tatsuo, James Turrell, and Naito Rei, and also Monet's Water Lilies, which can be seen under natural lighting.
Other projects mentioned were ideas for greening Tokyo, creating a forest on the sea and routes for breezes to run through, and also attempts to grass over the grounds of all Tokyo's elementary schools, and to get rid of utilities poles by shifting utilities underground.
Ando concluded by introducing his 4x4 House (2003), constructed on a sea-edge site with a view of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, and recalling Le Corbusier's Le Petit Cabanon, the tiny summer house he created late in life. Pointing out that architecture is a matter of how to use space, not a matter of size, Ando explained that anyone can have the chance to work on a project of this scale, but you need to be able to create that opportunity yourself. It has to be something you can actually assemble yourself. You never know when the chance will come. If you don't keep thinking, you will not be able to do what you would like. From Le Corbusier you can learn a way of living: It's up to you to make your own life interesting. If you have strong ideas, you will always be able to find a way to see forwards. The keen enthusiasm that Ando had when he set out for Europe in 1965 is still very much in evidence. His lecture was full of humor, providing laughs and interest from start to finish.