Shigeru Ban wins the 2014 Pritzker Prize

A Japanese architect has won the Pritzker Prize for the second year in a row. After Toyo Ito in 2013, the 2014 award goes to Shigeru Ban.
The judges of the Pritzker Prize, known as Nobel Prize of architecture, emphasised Shigeru Ban’s experimental and innovative approach to design.
The Japanese architect uses unconventional low-cost materials in his designs such as bamboo, fabric, paper and recycled paper and plastic fibres. His architecture is often described as "sustainable" and ecological.

Shigeru Ban has always had a "natural" way of working with an emphasis on reuse of materials wherever possible. The architect has come up with projects all over the world for public and private clients but also for populations in crisis situations. His humanitarian work began in 1994, when he made shelters out of cardboard tubes in Rwanda and was asked to serve as consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He continued this work with VAN (Voluntary Architects’ Network), an NGO for which Shigeru Ban has constructed temporary shelters for victims of natural disasters and refugees in various parts of the world.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects

http://www.pritzkerprize.com/
http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/

---

GALLERY