Shigeru Ban Architects have announced a special project that will help commemorate the 75th anniversary of the realization of Philip Johnson’s soon-to-be restored Brick House, the smaller outbuilding included at the site of the landmarked Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.

The firm made public its plans for a collaborative design-build with students from The Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, via LinkedIn. 

The project will be enacted on the Glass House grounds beginning April 15 and extending to the 15th of December of this year for public exhibition. On display will be the same Paper Log House prototype Ban and his Voluntary Architects’ Network have deployed recently in Turkey, Morocco, Japan, and Ukraine. Ban says his team will work with a group of 36 students to realize the prototype, marking its first North American installation in six years.

Johnson of course designed the Brick House structure as the guest accompaniment to the Glass House, which was completed a few months later in 1949. Ban and his team of hands-on learners will assemble the structure as part of a Building Technology course being taught at his alma mater in the Spring semester. This collaboration marks a significant educational opportunity, aligning with the ethos of innovation and experimentation that has characterized The Glass House over its 75-year history.

"We are thrilled to present the work of Shigeru Ban Architects at The Glass House on the occasion of our 75th anniversary," said Glass House executive director, Kirsten Reoch. "The Paper Log House continues this ethos of pushing boundaries in design and materials."

It coincides with the first unveiling of a $1.8 million restoration of the Brick House led by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was completed in November.

The project is expected to precede several other site-specific installations in an enhancement of the Glass House visitors' program following the smaller brick structure's closure to the public in 2008.

Additional information about the Brick House restoration, led by the National Trust for Historic Preservation with involvement from Senior Director Mark Stoner, is available here.