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While Japanese whiskey distilleries are claiming top accolades for their finely crafted products these days, one decorated artisanal-minded Japanese master is bringing his craft to the heart of Bourbon country: Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban has been selected to oversee the planning... View full entry
World-renowned architect Shigeru Ban sprang into action again in a disaster zone by setting up temporary “homes” to give flooding victims here some much-needed privacy.
Ban, members of his Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) and student volunteers used recycled paper tubes and pieces of fabric to create partitions for evacuees in the gymnasium of the Sono Elementary School in the Mabicho district on July 14.
— Asahi Shimbun
Torrential downpours and subsequent floods and mudslides have devastated parts of Western Japan in recent weeks. With over 250 people dead or missing and more than 8 million people under evacuation order, this has reportedly been one of the country's most severe natural disasters in years... View full entry
At the 2016 Venice Architectural Biennale, Ban and Choi presented a scale model of a 13-kilometer (about eight-mile), garden-lined bamboo walkway meandering between North and South Korea, elevated to protect visitors from ubiquitous DMZ landmines. Along its length would be towers for viewing nature and, every kilometer, open-air “Jung Ja” meditation pavilions designed by different architects and artists, including several reserved for North Koreans. — Los Angeles Times
With support from Shigeru Ban and others, artist Jae-Eun Choi envisioned a garden-lined bridge called "Dreaming of Earth" that would meander through the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which has ironically grown into one of Asia's most significant wildlife sanctuaries. The initial proposal, which Choi... View full entry
Due to the large influx of refugees, sheet walls of many temporary houses have begun to wear out. And there are other major constraints. There’s low water supply, deforestation, and extremely hot temperatures, and a rainy season which often results in heavy flooding. Plus Kalobeyei remote location creates many obstacles. There are no commercial flights to the area, and it can take up to 3 days to get there by road for the capital, Nairobi, where some materials may have to be sourced from. — UN-Habitat
Shigeru Ban has signed an agreement with UN-Habitat to design up to 12,000 new homes in the Kalobeiyei refugee settlement site in Northern Kenya. Commissioned in response to the settlement’s rapid growth, which is expected to outnumber its original capacity of 45,000 within a year, the new... View full entry
Details are scant, there's only one rendering, and yet according to on-the-nose-named developer PortLiving, Shigeru Ban has designed the world's tallest timber hybrid apartment complex. Called Terrace House, the sloping glass-encased, timber-framed, concrete and steel-cored building will... View full entry
In this video that blends time lapse and slow-motion techniques to fully showcase the visual splendor of the building, director Heidi Zuckerman of the The Aspen Art Museum speaks about how the "modesty" of Shigeru Ban's signature preferred materials perfectly suited the Colorado-based institution... View full entry
This week on the podcast, Donna, Ken and I discuss the uncertain future of downtown Atlanta's brutalist Public Library (the last building Marcel Breuer designed), how Shigeru Ban's relief efforts in Ecuador relate to his celebrity, and the emergence of a heavy-hitting lobbyist group for driverless... View full entry
Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban is once more jumping into disaster-relief efforts. The cardboard-wielding starchitect traveled to Ecuador earlier this week [...] to provide architectural training and brainpower in the wake of the deadly earthquake April 16 earthquake, which has killed more than 650 people and displaced another 26,000 from their homes. — curbed.com
The Colegio de Arquitectos del Ecuador Provincial de Pichincha issued this statement on its website (Google-translated from the original Spanish text):"The Association of Architects of Ecuador, Pichincha Chapter (CAE-P) and the Pan American Architecture Biennial of Quito, officially announced the... View full entry
After twin earthquakes in April and May claimed 9,000 lives and left vast swathes of Nepal in ruins, survivors worried if they reused the brick rubble, they would end up with the same vulnerable, seismically unsound structures.
[...] Shigeru Ban - who helped bring global attention to humanitarian architecture and continues to influence fellow architects and disaster-relief workers - devised a solution. [...]
"I'm encouraging people to copy my ideas. No copyrights," Ban said.
— reuters.com
"While Ban said he enjoys working on grand projects commissioned by privileged people, he also wants to help people who have lost their homes, and is encouraged that many architects have followed in his footsteps."Previously in the Archinect news:Shigeru Ban: Beauty as a basic human needShigeru... View full entry
Julia Ingalls explored how a firm the size of Gensler manages to maintain a cohesive studio culture. midlander wondered "when did Gensler get so big? I feel like I never heard of them until 10 years ago, then suddenly they were everywhere? Was it organic growth or have they been buying up local... View full entry
Amelia Taylor-Hochberg penned What makes an artless museum?, which reviewed the February Sky-lit event/preview of the new Broad Museum. Therein she argues that it provided "an opportunity for the architecture to be treated as a relational art object, but not so it could be handled with velvet... View full entry
Aesthetics is a primary concern for Ban—not despite, but especially in humanitarian scenarios. He believes that beauty is a basic need, an aspect of a person’s dignity. Erecting beautiful, if simple, structures can ensure that a refugee camp is not labeled a slum. So, when examining available materials in Kobe, he fussed about the color of the beer crates, choosing Asahi’s more neutral plastic bins over Kirin’s glaring red crates. — qz.com
Last week, Ban visited several U.S. cities on a brief lecture tour, captivating audiences with his thoughts about "the Temporary and the Monumental." Read Archinect's report from his Los Angeles lecture at LACMA here. View full entry
“I hate to throw things away,” explained the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban to a packed audience at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last night. On the projection screen, one of his first works as an architect was displayed: an exhibition of the work of Alvar Aalto, who Ban... View full entry
Pritzker Prize Laureate Shigeru Ban has announced plans to contribute to emergency relief efforts in Nepal after the April 25 earthquake reduced cities to rubble, killed more than 7,000, and left thousands homeless. In the short term, Ban’s firm and his relief organization Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) will distribute simple tents—supplemented with plastic sheets donated by contractors to serve as wall partitions—and assemble them onsite as temporary shelter and medical aid stations. — archrecord.construction.com
According to the report, VAN aims to partner with local universities, students and architects in the coming months to work towards create stable housing once conditions have stabilized. This is not the first time that Shigeru Ban, who won the 2014 Pritzker prize, has deployed his architectural... View full entry
Internationally renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban is one of the biggest names on the roster of New Orleans' international art festival, Prospect.3. But his exhibit at Longue Vue House and Gardens is a non-starter. [...]
Unfortunately, whatever plans Ban had for presenting a structure or artwork at Prospect.3 must have fallen through, because the exhibit at Longue Vue is comprised of nothing more than a sleepy selection of miniature architectural models and photos.
— nola.com
