Shigeru Ban named as 2024 Praemium Imperiale Award - Architecture

Shigeru Ban has been named the 35th Laureate of the Praemium Imperiale Award, in the category of Architecture 2024. The Tokyo architect, 67-year-old, follows Francis Kéré awarded last year.

Shigeru Ban has revolutionized architecture with his innovative use of materials and distinctive designs. Ban has designed numerous innovative buildings, including the Centre Pompidou-Metz (2010) with its undulating laminated wood and membrane roof, the Tamedia Building (2013) in Zurich, La seine musicale (2017) en París, and small projects like the toilets in Yoyogi Park in Tokyo (2020).

Curtain Wall House, 1995, Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Hiroyuki Hirai.

His international work is combined with his humanitarian work which began in the 1990s, with notable projects, an incredible journey that runs from his paper tube shelters in Rwanda, the disaster of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in Japan, post-tsunami housing in Sri Lanka and the Ukrainian war. He won the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize and continues working in times of peace and crisis.

"Ban has used a unique structural system for projects large and small, from civic buildings to emergency shelters. At the heart of his work is his determination that architecture should create something positive for society."

Praemium Imperiale Award statement.

Shigeru Ban played rugby from elementary school through high school. After graduating, he moved to the United States to study at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and later transferred to the Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York City. During a leave of absence, he worked for Arata Isozaki & Associates in Tokyo.

Upon graduation, he returned to Japan and opened his practice. In 1995, as an advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ban built a shelter out of paper tubes in a Rwandan refugee camp. In the same year, he built temporary housing for victims of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. This experience led him to found the Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN), which provides architectural relief to refugees and disaster victims around the world.

All names of the new award edition, established in 1988 by the Japan Art Association, were announced on Tuesday, September 10, by the Japan Art Association, as a global arts prize that honours exceptional achievements in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music, and Theatre/Film. For this edition, the recipients are as follows: Painting: Sophie Calle (France); Sculpture: Doris Salcedo (Colombia); Architecture: Shigeru Ban (Japan); Music: Maria João Pires (Portugal/Switzerland); Theatre/Film: Ang Lee (Republic of China, Taiwan).

The awarded are recognized for their international achievements in the arts and their role in enriching the global community. Each laureate receives a price of 15 million yen and a testimonial letter. Prince Hitachi, Honorary Patron of the Japan Art Association, will present a medal at the Awards Ceremony held in Tokyo on November 19, 2024.

Cardboard Cathedral, 2013 Christchurch, New Zealand. Photograph by Stephen Goodenough. Courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

At his office in Tokyo, April 2024. The Japan Art Association / The Sankei Shimbun.

Ukraine Refugee Assistance / Paper Partition System, 2022, Ukraine. Photograph by Jerzy Latka. Courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

Toilet in Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park by Shigeru Ban. Photograph by Satoshi Nagare, courtesy of the Nippon Foundation.

Mt.Fuji World Heritage Centre, 2017. Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Photograph by Hiroyuki Hirai. Courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

Simose Art Museum, 2023. Photograph by Hiroyuki Hirai. Courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2010, France. Photo by Didier Boy de la Tour.

La seine musicale, 2017. Photograph by Shun Kambe. Courtesy of The Japan Art Association.

Swatch Omega, 2019. Photograph by Nicolas Grosmond. Courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

In front of Centre Pompidou-Metz (2010), May 2024. Photograph by Shun Kambe. Courtesy of The Japan Art Association.

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SHIGERU BAN

Shigeru Ban was born in Tokyo in 1957 and after studying architecture in Los Angeles and New York, he opened an architectural practice in Tokyo, in 1985, with offices in Paris and New York, and has designed projects worldwide from private houses to large-scale museums.

His cardboard tube structures have aroused enormous interest. As long ago as 1986, he discovered the benefits of this recyclable and resilient material that is also easy to process. Shigeru Ban built the Japanese pavilion for the Expo 2000 world exposition at Hanover – a structure made of cardboard tubes that measured 75 meters in length and 15 meters in height. All the materials used in the structure were recycled after the exhibition. He developed a genuine style of "emergency architecture" as a response to the population explosion and natural disasters: the foundations of his low-cost houses are made of beer crates filled with sand, and the walls consist of foil-covered cardboard tubes. A house of this sort can be erected in less than seven hours and is considerably more sturdy than a tent.

Shigeru Ban is currently a Professor of Architecture at Keio University and is also a guest lecturer at various other universities across the globe; his works are so exceptional that he was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture in 2005. "Time" magazine describes him as one of the key innovators of the 21st century in the field of architecture and design.

Shigeru Ban has designed projects such as Centre Pompidou Metz and Nine Bridges Golf Clubhouse in Korea. Current projects include new headquarters for Swatch and Omega in Switzerland.

Published on: September 15, 2024

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