Shigeru Ban facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban, 2011
Born	(1957-08-05) 5 August 1957 (age 67) Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Alma mater	Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
Occupation	Architect
Spouse(s)	Masako Ban
Awards	Pritzker Prize (2014)
Buildings	Centre Pompidou-Metz, France Cardboard Cathedral, Christchurch, New Zealand, Aspen Art Museum, US

Takatori Catholic Church is a temporary church building erected in Kobe after the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995. It was donated (deconstructed and moved) to Taiwan in 2005.

Japanese pavilion at the Expo 2000, Hannover (2000)

Ban designed the Nomadic Museum with engineer Buro Happold, a temporary structure composed of 156 shipping containers (2006)

Shigeru Ban (坂 茂, Ban Shigeru, born 5 August 1957) is a famous Japanese architect. He is known for his amazing and creative designs, especially using paper and cardboard tubes. He uses these materials to quickly build homes for people who have lost theirs in disasters.

Many of his buildings are temporary, built from parts made beforehand, or use cheap and unusual materials in clever ways. Time magazine even featured him as a top innovator for the 21st century.

In 2014, Shigeru Ban won the Pritzker Architecture Prize. This is like the Nobel Prize for architects and is the most important award in modern architecture. The judges praised him for his new ways of using materials and for helping people around the world. They called him a "committed teacher" and an "inspiration."

Becoming an Architect

Shigeru Ban was born in Tokyo, Japan. He studied architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Later, he went to Cooper Union's School of Architecture and finished his studies in 1984.

At Cooper Union, he learned from a teacher named John Hejduk. Hejduk taught Ban to think about "three-dimensional poetry" in buildings. This means making buildings that are not just useful but also beautiful and artistic. Ban's work shows how he keeps exploring basic shapes and materials.

How Shigeru Ban Designs Buildings

One of Shigeru Ban's main ideas is the "invisible structure." This means he doesn't make the parts that hold up the building stand out too much. Instead, he hides them within the design. Ban is not always looking for the newest materials. He chooses materials that help show the main idea of his building.

Blending Styles

Ban's work mixes different styles of architecture. He is Japanese, so he uses ideas from traditional Japanese buildings. For example, he uses the idea of a "universal floor." This means the floor is flat and continuous, connecting all rooms without steps.

His Western education also shaped his work. He learned to combine ideas from both Eastern and Western building styles. This makes him one of the leading Japanese architects who blend these different approaches.

Using Paper as a Building Material

Shigeru Ban is most famous for his creative use of paper and cardboard tubes. He was the first architect in Japan to build a house mainly out of paper. He even needed special permission to make sure his paper house followed Japan's building rules.

Ban likes using paper because it is:

• Inexpensive
• Easy to recycle
• Simple to work with
• Easy to replace

His work with paper and other materials is also about being sustainable. This means using materials in a way that doesn't harm the environment and creates very little waste.

Helping People in Disasters

Ban's paper shelters have been used in many places after disasters. These include the Kobe earthquake in Japan, and in Turkey and Rwanda. They are popular because they are cheap and effective for helping people who have lost their homes.

For example, after the 1994 Rwanda refugee crisis, people were cutting down trees to build shelters. This caused deforestation. The United Nations tried using expensive aluminum pipes, but refugees sold them for money. Ban's paper tubes helped save money, prevent theft, and protect local trees.

Using Paper in Buildings

Construction details of the Cardboard Cathedral; cardboard, wood and glass

Shigeru Ban started experimenting with paper tubes in 1986. He found that paper was much stronger than he expected. He also realized that paper tubes are available all over the world. They are often made by companies that supply paper tubes for textile factories.

When disasters happen, building materials can become very expensive. Paper tubes, however, are not a common building material, so they are usually cheaper and easier to get. In Turkey in 1999, Ban was even able to get paper tubes for free!

Building After the Kobe Earthquake

In 1995, a big earthquake hit Kobe, Japan. Shigeru Ban helped with the rebuilding efforts. His temporary shelters were cheap and easy to build, and local communities could help put them together. They offered better living conditions than traditional tents.

These shelters were about 16-square-metre (172 sq ft) in size. Their walls were made from paper tubes, with small gaps for air. These gaps could also be taped up for insulation. The roof was made from waterproof tent material. The foundation used donated beer crates filled with sandbags.

Making Paper Stronger

Ban's idea of using existing materials fit his minimalist style. He didn't try to create a new type of paper. Instead, he used existing technologies like waterproofing films, polyurethane, and acrylic paints to make the paper stronger.

For his "Paper Dome" in 1998, he had to prove that paper was a safe building material to the government. He used straight paper tube joists connected by strong wooden joints. Even though the joints were expensive, the low cost of the paper tubes kept the overall budget low. The paper tubes were also waterproofed with liquid urethane to protect them from humidity.

The Japanese Pavilion at Expo 2000

Shigeru Ban also designed the Japanese Pavilion for Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany. This building used very long paper tubes, about 67 feet (20 m) long. These tubes were waterproofed inside and out with polyurethane to handle tough weather and fire. Surprisingly, these dense paper tubes are very hard to burn.

Ban designed the pavilion to be fully recyclable, fitting the Expo's theme of environmental awareness. Instead of metal connectors, he used fabric tape. This tape allowed the structure to move in complex ways and also helped hold it together. The main tunnel of the pavilion was huge, measuring 242 by 82 by 52 feet (74 m × 25 m × 16 m) (Length × Width × Height).

Because of strict building rules in Germany, the paper pavilion also had to include wooden parts, making it a hybrid structure. A clever design feature was Ban's use of recyclable wooden boxes filled with sand instead of a concrete foundation.

Shigeru Ban has said that the Japanese structural engineer Gengo Matsui was a big inspiration. Matsui helped him develop paper as a strong building material. Ban recalls, "He taught me to see the structural engineering process visually, almost intuitively."

Helping in Nepal

In July 2015, Shigeru Ban started a project to rebuild homes for people affected by the Nepal earthquake that year. The new homes have flexible wooden frames and brick walls. They are designed to be built quickly and easily. The people in Nepal can also use these buildings for other purposes, like schools.

Teaching Others

Shigeru Ban is a professor at Keio University. He has also taught at many other famous universities, including Harvard University, Columbia University, and Cornell University. He shares his unique ideas about architecture with new generations of students.

Selected Works

Centre Pompidou-Metz, France

Aspen Art Museum at dusk

Mount Fuji World Heritage Centre, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka

• Shutter House, Manhattan, New York City, USA
• Curtain Wall House (1995), Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan
• Naked House (2000), Kawagoe, Saitama prefecture, Japan
• Japanese Pavilion (2000) at Hannover World Exhibition Expo 2000, Hannover, Germany
• Nomadic Museum (2005–present), built to show Gregory Colbert's art
• Takatori Catholic Church, Kobe, Japan
• Paper Dome, Nantou, Taiwan
• Centre Pompidou-Metz museum, Metz, France
• Cardboard Cathedral, Christchurch, New Zealand (2012–2013)
• Aspen Art Museum, US
• Bamboo Furniture House, Great Wall, China
• Ōita Prefectural Art Museum, Ōita-shi, Japan
• Onagawa Station, Onagawa, Miyagi, Japan
• La Seine Musicale, Cultural complex and concert-halls on the Ile Seguin Boulogne-Billancourt, France
• Villa Vista, Weligama Sri Lanka
• Tainan Art Museum, Tainan, Taiwan

Awards and Recognitions

• The JIA Prize for the Best Young Architect of the Year, Japan (1997)
• Time magazine Innovator of the Year, US (2001)
• Prix de l'Académie d'Architecture de France (2004)
• Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, American Academy of Arts and Letters, US (2005)
• Honorary doctorate degree of Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany (2009)
• Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (2010)
• Honorary Doctorate from The New School, US (2011)
• National Order of Merit, France (2011)
• Auguste Perret Prize for Technology Applied to Architecture (2011)
• Mainich Design Prize, Japan (2012)
• Pritzker Architecture Prize (2014)
• Asia Game Changer Award (2014)
• World Economic Forum Crystal Award (2015)
• Princess of Asturias Award for Concord (2022)

See also

In Spanish: Shigeru Ban para niños