In this class we discuss the work of architect Shigeru Ban.

1. Shigeru Ban
ARCH 417
Dec 7, 2015

2. agenda
final exam: same format as midterm but longer
and cumulative across the whole semester
drawing portfolio due onWed
drawing assignment:

4. Shigeru BAN
• born 1957
• established Shigeru Ban Architects in 1985

5. design philosophy
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1000142405297
0203499704576622943953368166
Julie Iovine, "60 Seconds withArchitect Shigeru
Ban,"Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2011

6. "When I started as an architect I was
disappointed because architects mainly work
for privileged people, big corporations and rich
developers who want to show their power and
money through buildings. I thought I would be
working for a more general public or for people
who needed houses.The reality is totally
different."

7. "After I saw photographs of the plastic sheets
given to refugees to live under in Rwanda, in
1994, I went to the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees to propose ideas for
better shelters. Ever since then I have worked in
disaster areas. Right now I am designing a
paper-tube cathedral seating 700 for
Christchurch in New Zealand, where this year

8. "Home for me is inside an airplane. I have an
apartment in Paris, where I stay for two weeks
every month, and one inTokyo that I designed.
It is almost in the middle ofTokyo but inside a
small forest. It is like a tree house."

9. "I am not interested in theWorldTrade Center.
That kind of work is very political and I don't
want to make monuments."

10. "The opportunity to make a building in
Manhattan is so rare that, of course, I wanted to
do it.When I went to the site in Chelsea, I saw so
many galleries and storage places shuttered,
and that's why I chose shutters for the new
building. Normally apartments in NewYork are
turned in, and I wanted to open it all up to the
townscape."

11. "Wherever I go, I always take a sketchbook
and a novel to read, usually something historical
or a who-done-it."

12. "I look up to Mies van der Rohe, AlvarAalto,
John Hejduk and Frei Otto. Otto because he was
so innovative about lightweight structures, and
it was because of John Hejduk that I came to the
United States in 1977 to study at the Cooper
Union, where he was dean. But Aalto's work is
very important to me, too.Whenever I can I visit
hisVilla Mairea in Finland, because of its
absolute sense of context and the touch of

13. sketch for House at Hanegi Park,Tokyo, Japan, completed 2011
"The most useful product invented? Of course, it's the pencil."

14. Paper Arbor 1989
Nagoya, Japan
This was the first in a series of paper tube constructions. Manufactured as
form work for circular concrete columns, the tubes are used structurally here.
Forty-eight of these tubes (325mm in diameter, 15mm thick and 4m high) are
treated with paraffin water-proofing and fitted onto a precast concrete base
in a circle.These were stiffened with a glue compound and joined at their
heads by a wooden compression ring.The roof consisted of tenting fabric
hung from tension wire arranged in a spoke-like configuration.After the
structure was dismantled, the strength of the paper tubes was analyzed.
Despite being subject to six months of wind and rain, the hardening of the
glue and moderate exposure to ultraviolet rays actually resulted in increasing
the compressive strength of the tubes.

17. LIBRARY OF A POET
Zushi, Kanagawa, Japan, 1991This library was built as an annex to a house I had previously expanded previously
expanded and improved.The project was influenced by the Odawara Pavilion, which
the owner had seen. He felt that a paper library would be best suited to house paper
books. A variation of the paper tube truss used in the East Gate at Odawara was used
here.The tubes used in the library were 100mm in diameter and 12mm thick, slightly
smaller than those used at Odawara, but similarly, post-tensioned steel wires were
used for the spanning sections.Where steel angles were used to form the joints at
Odawara, 38 square mm timber pieces were employed for the library.The four floor
to ceiling bookshelves along the sides of the room are structurally independent of the
paper tubes and are cantilevered off the floor, absorbing the horizontal load.The
bookshelves, which contain insulating material and have an exterior finish, were
fabricated separately at a factory.

21. VILLA KURU
Nagano, Japan, 1991
• Mountainous site in Nagano, Japan
• sharply sloping site and views and has a sweeping view of the surrounding mountains; a
primary goal of the design process was to find the best way of framing the magnificent
panorama. The overall composition consists of a
• cylindrical core of 3.7 meters in diameter, containing a bathroom and the kitchen; a square
core holding the bedrooms; and a wall running parallel to the adjacent road.
• the two cores bear the perpendicular loads and resist the lateral stresses of the cantilever.
• floor slab is cantilevered 4.5 meters from the centerline of the building. The single-pitch roof
which follows the slope of the site is supported by two laminated-wood beams fixed on top
of the cores.The linear wall, roughly finished in masonry, is separate from the roof
structure.

23. interior with views

24. FURNITURE HOUSE 1 -
Yamanashi, Japan, 1995
• Prefabricated full-height units function as structural elements as well as
defining space and creating storage.
• Reduction of construction time, increase in usable space.
• Dimensions: 2.4 meters high, 0.9 meters wide, with an 0.45 meters depth
for bookcases and a 690mm depth for other units.)Weighs 79.2kg, so can
be easily moved into place and arranged as desired.

30. CurtainWall House
Tokyo, Japan 1995

36. Centre Pompidou, Metz (2010)
• 2003: Project proposed by Shigeru Ban (Tokyo), Jean de Gastines (Paris)
and PhilipGumuchdjian (London) is the winner of the international
architecture competition.
• 2006-2009: Construction.
• 2010: Building opens.

44. Metal Shutter Houses
NY, NY 2011

52. refugee camp, Rwanda, Africa, 1994

53. paper structure for Rwanda, 1999

56. current project, Nepal

57. HUMANITARIAN WORK
http://www.sasharitter.com/blog/5to3a5y56leh8dvfu4fthgmldvxm48

58. Cardboard Cathedral, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2013

59. biomimicry
biomimetics
biomimetic design
• Janine Benyus, Biomimicry 1997

60. Tim Smit
• Tim Smit, born in Holland to an English
mother
• worked as a music producer
• Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, England
• fell into ruin followingWW I
• comprehensive restoration project

61. Heligan Manor, Cornwall, England, with restored garden figure

63. Eden Project
• Eden Project was first conceived in 1995 as a
restoration of an almost-spent mine

64. Rainforest Biome
• designed by NicholasGrimshaw of Grimshaw
Architects

65. Patrick Lynch. "Bone-Like Plastic Structures
Form BiodegradeableTemporary PavilionsWith
"Osteobotics" 06 Dec 2015. ArchDaily. Accessed
6 Dec 2015.
http://www.archdaily.com/778099/bone-like-
plastic-structures-form-biodegradeable-
temporary-pavilions-with-
osteobotics?ad_medium=widget&ad_name=m
ost-visited-article-show