Shigeru Ban By: Mohd Farizuda BEA 080046

Biography
• He was born in the year 1957 in Tokyo.
• From 1977 through 1980 he studied at the Southern California Institute of
Architecture and the Cooper Union School of Architecture, where he graduated in
1984.
• He was apprenticed in the studios of Arata Isozaki from 1982-83 and in 1985 he
opened his own studios in Tokyo.
He teaches in a number of universities: Tama University (1993-1995), Yokohama
National University and Nihon University.
• In 1996 he was awarded the Kansai Architect Grand Prize and the first prize in the
Mainichi Advertisement Design Competition.
In 1997 he designed residential buildings in Tokyo.
• In 1999 he was commissioned to design the Japanese Pavilion for "Expo 2000" in
Hanover.
In 2000 he participated in the Venice Biennial with displays of paper homes
designed after the 1995 Kobe earthquake to house the homeless cheaply and
simply.
• His research into the use of economic materials, especially card and bamboo,
began in the '80's and still continues in the projects he is at work on today: card and
steel for a small museum in Dijon, card for four homes in Portugal and bamboo for a
number of Beijing residences.
 Design Philoshopy
• Shigeru Ban Architects (SBA)'s consistent design philosophy is to create uniquely
free and open space with concrete rationality of structure and construction
method. It seeks to challenge the existing construction method by using easily
obtainable off-the-shelf materials in innovative and unprecedented
structural/construction systems.

• Shigeru Ban’s method of architecture is simple; to create structures that challenge

the modern concept of materiality. Ban chooses to use simple recyclable
material to create structures of magnificence.
Although Ban has become an icon for advocates of 'green'and 'eco-friendly'
architecture, his intention behind his workis slightly different. It is more an ideology
against waste.

“I don't like waste” – Shigeru Ban

 Important Projects

2002 Picture Frame House Shizuoka, Japan

2002 Plywood Structure 04 Gymnasium, Odate, Akita

2002 Forest Park Pavilion Prototype-Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, USA

2000 PAM-A, Mishima, Shizuoka

2000 Naked House, Kawagoe

2000 Expo 2000 Hannover Japan Pavilion - Paper Tube Structure-13, Germany

1999 PaperTube shelters for refugees in Rwanda - Paper Tube Structure-10

1997 Wall-less-House, Karuizawa, Nagano

1995 2/5 House, Nishinomiya, Hyogo

1995 Paper Church - Paper Tube Structure -08, Kobe, Hyogo

1995 Paper Log House - Paper Tube Structure -07, Kobe, Hyogo

1995 Curtain Wall House, Tokyo

1994 Issey Miyake Gallery - Paper Tube Structure -06, Tokyo

1991 Library of a poet - Paper Tube Structure -04, Zushi, Kanagawa

1990 Odawara Pavilion - Paper Tube Structure -02

1987 Villa K, Tateshina, Nagano

1986 Villa TCG, Tateshina, Nagano

1986 "Judith Turner'' Exhibition design, Axis Gallery, Tokyo

1986 "Alvar Aalto'' Exhibition design, Axis Gallery, Tokyo

1986 "Emilio Ambasz'' Exhibition design, Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA

1985 "Emilio Ambasz'' Exhibition design, Axis Gallery, Tokyo

 Curtain Wall House, Tokyo, 1995

The house is intended to be a reflection of the owner's lifestyle. It is open to the

outdoors and utilizes contemporary materials in new interpretations of traditional
Japanese styles. Wide deck spaces are attached to the east and south sides of the
second-floor living room and tent-like curtains are hung on the outer facade between the
second and third floors.

Exploded axonometric view of the house

This house was Shigeru Ban's reaction to Mies Van der Rohe's Farnsworth House.
The obivious similarities are the slender columns that support the long horizontal planes,
the raised floor, and the plain white colour of the building.

Mies Van der Rohe's Farnsworth House

 Shigeru Ban's Curtain Wall House

Opened curtain Closed curtain

the Curtain Wall House embodies openness and transparency between interior and
exterior. Billowing curtains are the only means of providing privacy to the residents
of the house. Without the fabric, the house becomes completely exposed to the busy
street.
Interior conditons are also controlled by opening and closing this Japanese-style
"curtain wall". In winter, a set of glazed doors (in combination with the curtain) can
completely enclose the house for insulation and privacy. This thin membrane takes the
place of shoji and sudare screens, and fusuma doors that appear in the traditional
Japanese house.
“Mies invented the glass curtain wall, but I just used a curtain”
-Shigeru Ban
 Picture Window House - Shizuoka, Japan, 2002

“The first time I set foot on the site, my immediate response was to
frame the wonderful view of the ocean stretching horizontally. That is
to say that the building itself should become a picture window.”
- Shigeru Ban
The idea for this house can be clearly seen in its name and by looking at the building itself.

Building Plans
 1. 2.

3.

1.View of the bathroom looking down the corridor

2.Interior view of the bedroom.Diagonal braces of the structure are exposed inside the room
3.View from the open deck on the ground floor
 Framed ocean view on the ground floor.

Exploded axonometric view of the building

 Naked House - Saitama, Japan, 2000

“met the client only once, I was again considering what to do about the project of
this house, when the client sent me a facsimile making precise requests. What he
wanted was described as a house that “provides the least privacy so that the family
members are not secluded from one another, a house that gives everyone the
freedom to have individual activities in a shared atmosphere, in the middle of a
“unified family”. After reading his fax, I knew that I should take up this challenge.”
− Shigeru Ban

Interior view of the house

 Plan

'naked house' consists of a large open plan, in which cubical room units can be wheeled
into various positions according to the moods and climatic desires of the occupants. The
client wanted a house with as little privacy as possible, a house which does not separate
family members from each other, but allow them space for their individual activities while
retaining an atmosphere of togetherness. Based on this concept shigeru ban designed the
transparent house container with four movable open room containers.
almost without windows, no room doors, a family of five, made up of three generations,
lives there.

Interior view of the house. Note the movable open room containers.
 Exploded axonometric view of the Naked House

The external walls made of two sheets of corrugated fiber-reinforced plastics and the inner
walls made of a nylon fabric are both mounted on wooden stud frames and sit in parallel.
In between are attached clear plastic bags, carefully stuffed with strings of foamed
polyethylene for insulation purpose. Through these bags a soft diffused light fills in the
interior of the house.
 Paper Architecture
Business Definition for: Paper Architecture
•an ambitious business project that never gets beyond the planning stage, because of
lack of funding or because it is not feasible
(source: http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/paper+architecture.html )

Shigeru Ban's paper architecture

Experimental buildings partly constructed with tubes built up from laminated layers of
recycled paper.
Shigeru Ban is a pioneer of paper tube structures (PTS).
The manufacturing process of paper tubes is very simple. Recycled paper is pulled out
from a paper roll cassette, put into a jar filled with glue, rolled again in a spiral by a winder
and cut into pieces of a designated length

Paper tubes in the form of the

cores for rolled toilet paper or
fax paper.

Examples of the usage of PTS

 Japan Pavilion, EXPO 2000, Hannover, Germany

The Pavilions has been a great leap forward in the field of paper architecture. The main
theme of the Hannover Expo was the environment and the basic concept behind the
Japan Pavilion was to create a structure that would produce as little industrial waste
as possible when it was dismantled. The goal was either to recycle or reuse almost all
of the materials that went into the building.

Side Elevation of Japan Pavilion

 Day view

Night view

Interior view of the pavillion

The pavilion consisted of an approach zone, an exhibition space 72m long, 15.5m high,
and 35m span at its widest point, and administrative office.
 Honeycomb board as partitions for the interior.

Paper tube grid

Ban is always concerned with the afterlife of his structures, his design for the
Japanese Pavilion at the Hannover Expo 2000 is a particular triumph. He knew
its life there was short, so he developed a grid shell structure using his
signature paper tubes, then arranged for the tubes to be returned to
the manufacturer and made into pulp when the event finished.
Likewise, the foundation was made of wooden boxes filled with sand and ready
for re-use, rather than a more permanent and non-recyclable concrete.
 Paper Log Houses - Kobe, Japan, 1995

In January 17, 1995 a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit the city of Kobe, Japan leaving three
hundred thousand people homeless. The aftermath of the quake left the city in ruins,
destroying some one hundred and two thousand buildings.
This catastrophic event gave Ban the commission he needed to truly test his method of
building.

“Refugee shelter has to be beautiful. Psychologically, refugees are damaged. They

have to stay in nice places.”
− Shigeru Ban
 Plan of the Kobe paper log houses

Elevation Section
 Location :
Kobe, Japan
Date of Finished Construction :
1995
Type of Structure :
Cardboard Tubes
List of Materials :
-KIRIN beer crates
-sand bags
-13’x13’ plywood floor
-plywood pegs
-2x8 pieces of wood
-4 1/2” diameter cardboard
tubes
-waterproof tape
-tent like material
-1/4” steel rods
-plywood roofing connections
Time it takes to assemble it on
site :
less than 6 hours
People it takes to assemble :
1-20
Cost of Building :
under $2,000
Exploded axonometric view of the house

'Kirin' beer crates

filled with bag of
sand Detail-Wall to Beer Crate
Foundation
 “I'm only interested in making something
different.I have no interest in following
fashion.And when you look at the history of
architecture, when somebodydevelops a new
type of structure or material,a new type of
architecture emerges.I like to develop my own
structural systems & materials to make the
work my own.”- Shigeru Ban

Sources:
http://www.xfaf.it. (n.d.). Shigeru Ban talk. Retrieved March 7, 2010, from
http://www.designboom.com/history/ban.html

Shigeru Ban Architects. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2010, from

http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com

New York Architecture Images. (n.d.). Shigeru Ban. Retrieved March 8, 2010, from
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/ARCH/ARCH-Shigero.htm

Kimmelman, Micheal. (2007, May 20). Waste Not The Accidental Environmentalist.
The Times Magazine. Retrieved March 8, 2010, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/magazine/20shigeru-t.html?pagewanted=all

Luscombe, Belinda. (2000). He Builds With a Really Tough Material: Paper. Retrieved
March 8, 2010, from
http://www.time.com/time/innovators/design/profile_ban.html