Author Philip Jodidio embarks on a journey through the world of Shigeru Ban. He explores newly opened, highly anticipated buildings, shares his outlook on the future of the Shigeru Ban studio, and thus creates a global and timeless overview of the career of the Japanese architect. This monograph invites you to follow the development of an artist regarded as a guarantor of architectural marvels unmatched in innovation, elegance, and sensitivity. In addition to early works where Ban established paper tubes as structural elements and unmistakable houses like the Curtain Wall House in Tokyo, the volume also presents recent projects, including the Swatch/Omega Campus in Switzerland, a two-story penthouse on the roof of a 140-year-old New York landmark, and La Seine Musicale, a concert hall integrated into Jean Nouvel’s master plan on the Ile Séguin in France.

Ban’s work primarily seeks to understand. How do buildings function? How can waste materials be upgraded through reuse? He formulates answers as inventive solutions, such as the use of paper as a building material. Throughout his career, Ban, who early on became a symbolic figure of Japanese architecture, has remained true to his unique architectural signature that distinguishes his projects worldwide. However, fame and honor did not prevent the Pritzker Prize winner from dedicating his talent and creativity to people in need. He designed refugee shelters in Rwanda and Sri Lanka and enabled the rapid construction of emergency shelters in the crisis areas of Fukushima and Ukraine using his paper tube technique. With his solution-oriented, generous, and elegant approach, Shigeru Ban shapes humanitarian architecture and continually redefines the boundaries of his field.