Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban, globally recognised for his innovative use of bamboo, paper and timber materials in humanitarian work, has been honoured as the 35th Laureate of the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Award for Architecture.
Established by the Japanese Art Association in 1988, it recognises exceptional achievements in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music, and Theatre/Film under the patronage of HIH Prince Hitachi, the younger brother of the Emperor Emeritus of Japan.
Mr Ban, who founded the Voluntary Architects Network 30 years ago, has worked tirelessly to provide temporary housing, partition systems, community centres, and places of worship for those affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts in several nations, including Rwanda, Syria, Turkey, India, China, Italy, Haiti, and his home country of Japan.
“I design houses and public buildings, but disaster relief is my life’s work,” says Shigeru Ban, who is credited with creating a Paper Log House to help victims of the recent Turkey-Syria earthquake and is now raising money to construct a surgical wing for Ukraine’s largest hospital, built from cross-laminated timber.
“Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the country’s largest hospital-based hospital in Lviv is reaching capacity and urgently needs expansion,” Mr Ban said. The six-storey building will use mass timber as its base material. Renders show a rectangular block with a gridded facade and an expressed-timber entrance canopy.
In addition to the hospital, Shigeru Ban has also developed a Styrofoam Housing System (SHS) to provide affordable housing solutions for thousands of Ukrainians who have fled conflict zones – working with Polish architect Hubert Trrammer and former student Jerzy Latka to open 319 cardboard and cloth cubicles for refugees in March last year.
“I’m like a doctor. I’m for people,” Mr Ban said, who last year helped organise a conference – “Shigeru Ban and Architecture for Refugees” – which helped raise awareness of the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
In addition to humanitarian work, Mr Ban’s studio is behind some of the world’s most iconic designs—including a one-of-a-kind Maldives development, which will see 44 timber villas propelled into the Indian Ocean via an enormous timber walkway.
Billed as Infinite Maldives, it will be developed at Male Atoll—a small atoll 645km off the coast of Sri Lanka—and will “embrace the Maldivian vernacular,” according to Mr Ban. The villas will combine timbers with recycled local materials to “blend seamlessly with the surrounding Indian Ocean.”
“What makes Infinite Maldives unique is that the resort blends in with the sea and the green nature in an ‘infinite’ manner,” Mr Ban said, adding that the approach “focused on the landscape design first, ensuring a seamless connection between water, land, and vegetation, promoting continuity between indoor and outdoor spaces.”
- To learn more about the Praemium Imperiale Award for Architecture and this year’s award winners, visit the World Architecture website.
