From the Ground Up is a series on Archinect focused on discovering the early stages & signs of history's most prolific architects. Starting from the beginning allows us to understand the long journey architecture takes in even the most formative of hands and the often, surprising shifts that occur on its journey. These early projects grant us a glimpse into the early, naive, ambitious—and at points, rough—edges of soon to be architectural masters.

Before his mastery of wood, paper and traditional materials led to a Pritzker and humanitarian acclaim, Shigaru Ban started his career under the direct influence of John Hejduk while studying at Cooper Union. During his studies, and under the tutelage of Hejduk, Ban began to understand the delicate intricacies from which Hejduk pulled inspiration and architectural virtuosity.  

From Hejduk, Ban gained an increasing dedication to and intrigue into the usage of architecture, poetics and narrative through dimension. All these tools would become Ban's entrance into the discipline, turning geometric and material translations of Hejduk's poetic methodologies into his own.

...Ban later turned into discussions and simultaneous explorations into materials of the building and its poetic possibilities.

Ban does not make structure his design ethos or declare some sense of structural exuberance. Instead, Ban treats structure and materials as an equal and instrumental part of his design approach and turns such language into the design itself. Ban turned geometry into voids and light, as well as cultural and humanitarian explorations. 

Looking back at Ban's first commission, we get a glimpse into such a dialogue and the beginning of a geometric tangent which Ban would later turn into his own signature. 

Villa TCG, a private home in Tateshina, a rural village near Nagano, is organized around a central architectural focal structure all made of brick. Villa TCG kicked off a decade of experimental homes, case studies such as Villa K and the Three Walls house that riffed off Japanese design and the ideas of Western architects. Villa TCG's spatial composition also included a stone wall with a small opening at its center on the north facade that provides a view of the kiln, again turning an open arm to the influence of Hejduk's formal geometric moves and poetic underlying motifs. 

...again turning an open arm to the influence of Hejduk's formal geometric moves and poetic underlying motifs. 

The wall follows the curves in the stream and defined the interior spaces. Another wall, made of Canadian red cedar, extends and connects to the other side of the stream. All circulation routes like stairs and corridors are placed along this wall. A third wall, forming a brick cylinder containing a kitchen, a bathroom, and a fireplace, is the functional core of the house. 

This was the beginning of Ban's career while also playing as the beginning of Ban's separation from his educational restraints. From here, Ban would begin to use local materials, cost-effective variations and start to hint at the future to come through exhibitions and a series of case study homes.