Book review: Shigeru Ban – Complete Works

There’s the book with every building ever realized by the renowned Japanese master! Let’s see the book review:

Shigeru Ban attended SciArc in California and earned his degree at the Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York. Based in Tokyo and Paris, Ban consistently challenges accepted notions of architecture,designing a house without walls, or an exhibition space made from paper tubes and shipping containers. As one of his most important buildings nears completion—the Centre Pompidou-Metz in eastern France—this monograph, compiled with the architect’s collaboration, traces his career and features every built work of Shigeru Ban, showing clearly why he is one of the world’s most innovative architects.

Unlike many of his peers, Ban can create remarkable residences and still find time to design emergency relief housing for disaster areas from Kobe to New Orleans. Often using paper or cardboard tubes as a structural element, his designs give new meaning to the term “Paper Architect.”

In 2014, Ban was named the 37th recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious prize in modern architecture.The Pritzker Jury cited Ban for his innovative use of material and his dedication to humanitarian efforts around the world, calling him “a committed teacher who is not only a role model for younger generation, but also an inspiration.”

For Ban, one of the most important themes in his work is the “invisible structure”. That is, he does not overly express his structural elements, but rather chooses to incorporate them into the design. Ban is not interested in the newest materials and techniques, but rather the expression of the concept behind his building.He deliberately chooses materials to further this expression.

Ban’s experimental development of paper tubing structures came in 1986, before any of his programmatic commissions. He found paper’s structural integrity to be much better than expected and noted that it is also available all around the world. The structures are most commonly available from manufacturers providing paper tubes for use in textile factories, as in the case with the disaster relief shelters project in Ahmedabad, India.

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