Famed Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has been awarded this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize, which acknowledges significant achievements in architecture and art, often considered the Nobel Prize of architecture.
Ban first rose to notoriety with his innovative use of materials, such as paper and cardboard in designing, but lately has been known for developing cost-effective structures and temporary buildings for areas hit by natural and manmade disasters all the while still maintaining a private client portfolio.
Photo © MOSSOT / Wikimedia Commons
“Receiving this prize is a great honor, and with it, I must be careful. I must continue to listen to the people I work for, in my private residential commissions and in my disaster relief work,” said Shigeru Ban. “I see this prize as encouragement for me to keep doing what I am doing – not to change what I am doing, but to grow.”
Some of Ban’s most reputable work includes the rebuilding of the Takatori Catholic Church in Japan, after it was damaged in 1995 by an earthquake, and most recently the Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand, following the devastating 2011 earthquake.
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