Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has won the 2014 Pritzker Architect Prize for his innovative and resourceful design approach and extensive humanitarian efforts.
Ban, 56, was praised for his work in disaster areas around the globe over the last twenty years, spanning from the Rwanada genocide to the 2011 Japanese tsunami. When presented with the aftermath of such disasters, he teams up with volunteers and local citizens to design and construct low-cost, recyclable shelters and community buildings for the disaster victims made from paper tubes, bamboo, and shipping containers.
Some of his most famous and innovative humanitarian projects include a “Paper Log House” for Vietnamese refugees in 1995, and a cardboard cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand following the 2011 earthquake,
For private clients, Ban designed the Centre Pompidou-Metz in France with its impressive curved wooden roof, and the Naked House in Japan, with its clear corrugated plastic walls.
Reached at his Paris office, Shigeru Ban said upon the new of his award:
“Receiving this prize is a great honor, and with it, I must be careful. I must continue to listen to the people I work for, in my private residential commissions and in my disaster relief work. I see this prize as encouragement for me to keep doing what I am doing – not to change what I am doing, but to grow.”
Highlights of Shigeru Ban’s work:
