BOOK:Shigeru Ban-Complete Works 1985-2010, Taschen Publications
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban is a maestro of the slight yet seductive, known for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard tubes. Ban was born in Tokyo, Japan and studied at Tokyo University of the Arts, and then at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Later he went to Cooper Union’s School of Architecture in New York City, where he trained under the legendary and experimental architect John Hejduk. Shigeru Ban’s practice has been praised for balancing between building exquisite private residences for those who can afford them (like his paper, furniture, curtain wall, and shutter houses) and offering design solutions to house the victims of man-made and natural disasters. Ban’s elegant and innovative style prioritizes the concept of the building, incorporating the base structure into the total aesthetic experience of the architecture. His work is also ecologically minded, leaning towards materials that produce as little waste as possible. Ban’s background has a definite impact on his projects too; many themes and methods found in traditional Japanese architecture, such as shōji, and the idea of a ‘universal floor’ to allow continuity between all rooms in a house, appear constantly in his buildings. Limited to 200 numbered copies, each signed by the architect and delivered in a clamshell box, The Paper Architect-Art Edition by Taschen Publications presents his Complete Works 1985-2010 and features a special cover custom-made by Shigeru Ban, with a handcrafted mesh of polished African Samba wood (Triplochiton scleroxylon), inspired by the roof design of the new Centre Pompidou-Metz. –Efi Michalarou
