Shigeru Ban

by Matilda McQuaid

Shigeru Ban lives and works in Tokyo, where he teaches architecture at Keio University. The scope of his practice - he has houses, museums, pavilions, and other public projects in progress in France, London, Beijing, Portugal, Brussels, and the United States - belies a relatively quiet early career in Tokyo. Following studies at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) and graduation from The Cooper Union in New York, he established his own firm in Toyko in 1985. During next decade, Ban built a following in Japan by designing dozens of unique small houses, exhibitions, and other projects using alternative, environmentally friendly paper, wood, bamboo and prefabricated paper products. Following the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, Ban responded by designing emergency temporary housing he calls Paper Log Houses, made out of paper logs, waterproof sponge tape, and beer crates that could be assembled in a matter of hours by volunteers and provided shelter for hundreds of displaced residents. Following on the success of this project, from 1995 to 2000 Ban was a consultant to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, advising on temporary housing for displaced populations in Rwanda, Turkey, and India. He established the Voluntary Architects' Network (VAN) in 1995, an organization that continues to promote such humanitarian assistance by architects. Ban has won several awards, including the Kansai Architect Grand Prize in 1996, and Best Young Architect of the Year from the Japan Institute of Architecture in 1997. Ban's fame began to spread rapidly beyond Japan when he was included in the Museum of Modern Art's "Un-Private House" exhibition in 1999 with his Curtain Wall House in Tokyo, 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. The following year Ban designed his first museum project in the United States, also at "Paper Arch", an installation of cardboard tubes in a canopy over the museum's sculpture garden. Also in 2000, 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. The modest names Ban gives to his projects - "Paper Church", "Library of a Poet", "Bamboo Furniture House", "Naked House" - express his lack of pretense and his focus on materials and structure rather than form for form's sake. This book features 32 of Ban's most exemplary projects realized since 1993, divided into 5 sections based on the primary materials or construction principle paper, wood, bamboo, prefabrication, and skin. Each project is documented with colour photographs, plans, drawings, and a brief, straightforward project description. In addition, the book contains four sections of "experimental data", or technical information, printed in red and black on grey tinted paper. These sections gather diagrams, tables, sketches, and explanatory text to document the numerous tests that Ban's office has made over the years to study the strength, performance, and structural potential of his materials. A foreword by the distinguished German architect Frei Otto, with whom Ban has collaborated for several years, introduces the book. Also included is an essay by Shigeru Ban about his work with Otto on the Japan Pavilion.

Genres: Architecture

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 18, 2003

Reviews

[Wei Cho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shigeru Ban is one of my favorite architects and human beings out there! His social commitment and passion for structures and experimenting with different materials and methods of construction is astounding and highly commendable. His furniture house is so functional. He has some simplicity that is beautiful to experience, I wish I could go to Japan and just go to experience the spaces he's talking about and feel what he's describing. It is something very alluring and the light is so warm as its projected into the building! Gosh, I hope I can meet him when I'm a professional and work with him. It would be a dream come true.

This books is a compilation of Shigeru Ban's work cataloged by the material: paper, wood, bamboo, concrete, and skin. It is not a comprehensive list 'cause I've read other books that showcase more of his works. However, this book details the construction system he used plus more details.