Shigeru Ban
Early Life and Education
Shigeru Ban was born on August 5, 1957, in Tokyo, Japan. His father was a businessman, and his mother was a haute couture dressmaker. He grew up in a creative household and showed an early interest in art and making things. As a child, he wanted to be a carpenter, and he was fascinated by the traditional wooden houses of Japan.
He attended Waseda University Senior High School, where he excelled in art and rugby. He began to consider a career in architecture after seeing a magazine article about the work of the American architect John Hejduk. He was captivated by Hejduk’s poetic and philosophical approach to architecture, and he decided that he wanted to study with him.
At the time, Hejduk was the dean of the Cooper Union’s School of Architecture in New York City. Ban began to study English and prepare for the Cooper Union’s entrance exam. In 1977, he moved to the United States and enrolled in the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles.
In 1980, he transferred to the Cooper Union, where he finally had the opportunity to study under John Hejduk. He also studied under other influential architects and theorists, such as Peter Eisenman and Ricardo Scofidio. His time at the Cooper Union was a formative experience, and he absorbed the school’s rigorous and conceptual approach to design.
During his time as a student, he also worked for the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. In 1982, he took a year off from his studies to travel to Europe. He visited the works of the modern masters and spent time in Paris, where he was particularly impressed by the Centre Pompidou.
He returned to the Cooper Union and graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1984. A year later, in 1985, he established his own architectural practice in Tokyo. He was just 28 years old, but he had a clear and unique vision for a new kind of architecture, one that would be both innovative and socially responsible.
Architectural Philosophy and Career
Shigeru Ban’s architectural philosophy is characterized by its structural ingenuity, its environmental consciousness, and its deep commitment to humanitarian work. He is known for his innovative use of unconventional materials, particularly paper and cardboard tubes, and for his pioneering work in the field of disaster relief architecture.
His philosophy is rooted in a critique of the waste and permanence of traditional architecture. He is interested in creating an architecture that is lightweight, economical, and sustainable. He believes that an architect’s responsibility is not just to create beautiful buildings for wealthy clients, but also to use their skills to help people in need.
Ban’s career began with a series of exhibition designs, which allowed him to experiment with his ideas about temporary and recyclable structures. It was during this time that he first began to explore the structural possibilities of paper tubes. He was drawn to paper because it was a cheap, lightweight, and surprisingly strong material that was also sustainable and easy to work with.
He developed a series of structural systems using paper tubes, which he used to create a variety of temporary and permanent buildings. His early “paper architecture” projects were often met with skepticism, but he worked closely with engineers and building authorities to test and prove the strength and durability of his designs.
In the mid-1990s, Ban’s career took a decisive turn when he began to apply his knowledge of paper architecture to the problem of disaster relief. In 1994, after learning about the humanitarian crisis in Rwanda, where millions of people had been displaced by civil war, he proposed a design for emergency shelters made of paper tubes to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
In 1995, after the Great Hanshin earthquake in Kobe, Japan, he went to the disaster site and designed and built a “Paper Log House” for the Vietnamese refugees who had been left homeless. He also designed a “Paper Church” for the community, which became a symbol of hope and recovery.
This was the beginning of his extensive humanitarian work. He founded the Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN), a non-governmental organization that provides temporary housing and community buildings for the victims of natural and man-made disasters around the world. He has worked in disaster zones in Turkey, India, Sri Lanka, China, Italy, Haiti, and New Zealand, among others.
In addition to his humanitarian work, Ban has also designed a number of high-profile permanent buildings, including museums, houses, and commercial buildings. In these projects, he continues to explore his interest in structural innovation and the use of unconventional materials, including wood and bamboo.
Notable and Famous Works
Shigeru Ban’s portfolio includes a wide range of projects, from temporary disaster shelters to major cultural institutions.
The Centre Pompidou-Metz (2010) in Metz, France, is one of his most famous and ambitious works. The museum is a satellite branch of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and its most distinctive feature is its massive, undulating roof, which is made of a woven lattice of laminated timber that is inspired by the pattern of a Chinese hat. The roof covers a series of simple, rectangular gallery spaces and creates a large, covered public plaza.
The Paper Church (1995) in Kobe, Japan, is one of his most iconic early works. The temporary church was built for the Catholic community after their church was destroyed in the earthquake. The church is an elliptical structure made of 58 paper tubes, and it was built by a team of volunteers in just five weeks. The building was later dismantled and sent to Taiwan, where it was reassembled and became a permanent church.
The Nomadic Museum (2005-2007) was a temporary exhibition space for the photographer Gregory Colbert’s “Ashes and Snow” exhibition. The museum was a massive, cathedral-like structure made of shipping containers and paper tubes, and it was designed to be easily dismantled and transported to different cities around the world. It was installed in New York, Santa Monica, and Tokyo.
The Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre (2017) in Shizuoka, Japan, is a museum dedicated to the famous mountain. The building’s most distinctive feature is its inverted, cone-shaped form, which is made of a lattice of Japanese cypress and is reflected in a large pool of water, creating the image of Mount Fuji.
The Aspen Art Museum (2014) in Aspen, Colorado, is a simple, box-like building with a distinctive, woven wooden screen facade. The museum’s interior is a series of flexible gallery spaces, and its rooftop sculpture garden offers panoramic views of the surrounding mountains.
His disaster relief projects are also a key part of his work. These include the “Paper Log Houses” that he has designed for earthquake victims in Japan, Turkey, and India, and the paper tube partition system that he has designed to provide privacy for refugees in collective shelters.
Awards, Honors, and Legacy
Shigeru Ban has received numerous awards and honors for his work. In 2014, he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The jury citation praised him for his “creative and innovative work for private clients” and for his “efforts in humanitarian relief.” The jury noted that he is a “committed teacher who is not only a role model for a younger generation, but also an inspiration.”
He has also received the Asahi Prize (2015), the JIA Grand Prize for the Centre Pompidou-Metz (2011), and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture (2005).
Ban’s legacy is that of a quiet revolutionary who has redefined the social and environmental responsibility of the architect. He has shown that architecture can be a powerful tool for social change, and that even the most humble materials can be used to create buildings of great beauty and dignity.
He has challenged the profession’s obsession with permanence and monumentality, and he has created a new model for an architecture that is lightweight, flexible, and sustainable. His humanitarian work has had a profound impact on the lives of thousands of people around the world, and it has inspired a new generation of architects to use their skills for the public good.
He is an architect who is as comfortable working with paper tubes as he is with advanced timber structures, and his work is a testament to his belief that innovation and social responsibility are not mutually exclusive. He is one of the most important and admired architects of our time, and his work offers a vision of a more humane and sustainable future for architecture.