This comprehensive publication includes 12 new projects Ban has designed
since 2000.
Photo © Hirooyuki Hirai
Because of his radical approach to materials and social problems, combined
with the drama and delicacy of his buildings, Ban is fast becoming one of
the world's most influential architects.
Based in Japan and one of an emerging generation of young, world-class architects,
Shigeru Ban (b. 1957) designs and builds graceful, serene structures using
modest materials such as cardboard, paper tubes, bamboo, and prefabricated
wood.
His buildings are sometimes soaring and birdlike, sometimes simple, grounded,
and evocative of the Japanese aesthetic, but always they are integrated with,
and respectful of, their surrounding environment.
Ban's temporary structure "Paper Arch" was erected in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City during the summer
of 2000.
The 30 feet high latticed paper-tube arch spanned the entire width of the
garden creating a sense of enclosure and sanctuary without losing the drama
of openness to neighbouring towers or the sky above.
Photo © Shigeru Ban Architects
He has designed projects at both ends of the client spectrum. Following
his invention of Paper Log Houses as a response to the 1995 earthquake in
Japan, Ban consulted to the United nations High Commissioner for Refugees
for five years and founded the Voluntary Architects' Network (VAN), whose
international membership develop architectural solutions in humanitarian
crises.
His "Curtain Wall House" in Tokyo (1994), a glass-and-steel house where
privacy is controlled by means of monumental, two-story-high curtains along
two glass facades that can be opened or closed, was a favorite entry in the
Museum of Modern Art's "Un-Private House" exhibition in 1999.
Photo: Hirooyuki Hirai
Photo: Hirooyuki Hirai
His "Naked House" (2000) won Best House in the World at the World Architecture
Awards.
Photo: Hirooyuki Hirai
He collaborated with German architect Frei Otto to design the Japan Pavilion
at Expo 2000 in Hannover, a recyclable, organic-shaped structure of paper
stretched over a paper tube armature.
Photo: Hirooyuki Hirai
In 2002 Ban completed the Paper Art Museum and the "Picture Window House"
in Shizuoka, Japan, as well as the Atsushi Imai Memorial Gymnasium in Akita,
Japan.
Photo: Hirooyuki Hirai
Photo: Hirooyuki Hirai
Photo: Hirooyuki Hirai
In 2003 he added the "Glass Shutter House" and "Shutter House for a Photographer"
in Tokyo, Japan to his long list of projects.
He is currently working on a number of domestic projects, including a library
for Seikei University in suburban Tokyo.
This year construction started on Ban's winning design for the new branch
of the Pompidou Center in France. The opening of this first branch of the
French cultural institution is planned for 2007.
Photo courtesy Centre Pompidou, France
Ban was included in the 2000 and 2002 Venice Biennale and was a member of
the Think team of architects selected in February 2003 as one of two finalist
teams to compete for the commission to design the new World Trade Center site
in New York.
Designed in Japan in collaboration with Ban the book, divided into sections
that reflect the architect's approach to materials, presents 32 projects illustrated
with colour photographs, plans, and sketches.
A foreword by German architect Frei Otto, with whom Ban has collaborated
for several years, introduces the book.
Book
Shigeru Ban
By Matilda McQuaid
Publisher: Phaidon Press
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