Shigeru Ban

Shigeru Ban (1957-) is one of the most famous contemporary Japanese architects, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2014. His explicitly minimalist style is characterized by a consistent research work on poor materials that runs through all his work: a recurring stylistic feature in his work are, for example, recycled cardboard tubes, which are economical, resistant and ecological. The use of similar materials also lends itself well to the creation of temporary and tensile structures, an architectural typology often at the center of Ban's research and which he combines with specific humanitarian motivations, as in the case of the temporary homes built for the displaced people of the 1995 Kobe earthquake or the Paper Concert Hall in L'Aquila (2010-11), a removable auditorium built to deal with the destruction caused in the city by a serious seismic event. In his creations, Shigeru Ban is able to skilfully mix Eastern and Western stylistic elements thanks also to the long years of study in the United States, which was followed in the early 1980s by an apprenticeship with Arata Isozaki before opening his own studio in Tokyo in 1985. Among his most famous works are the sinuous Japanese pavilion at the Expo in Hannover (2000), the Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand (2013), also a temporary work built following an earthquake that destroyed the city's main cathedral, and the Centre Pompidou in Metz (2006-10), one of his most ambitious creations, whose complex roofing was inspired by a traditional Chinese hat. Among his sporadic attempts as a product designer, it is worth mentioning the cardboard furniture designed for the Swiss brand wb form and the collaboration in the field of lighting with the Italian brand FontanaArte.