The character arc of Shigeru Ban
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 5 August 1957 in Tokyo. Between then and now sit the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Cooper Union under John Hejduk and a degree in 1984, a fascination with paper because it is cheap and recyclable and replaceable, the first building in Japan made primarily of paper and the special approval it needed to be legal, shelters after the Kobe earthquake and in Rwanda and Turkey, a 72 metre paper gridshell in Hanover, a cardboard cathedral in Christchurch, a station in Onagawa, the Pritzker Prize in 2014, and homes in Nepal in 2015. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Shigeru Ban?
The law had no word for it. So he had it approved.
He was born in Tokyo, studied at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and then went to Cooper Union to study under John Hejduk, graduating in 1984. Hejduk was the most experimental of the New York Five and gave him an interest in what Ban calls architectonic poetics, three-dimensional poetry, and a habit of returning to basic geometric elements.
Then he did the thing the rest of the career rests on. He became the first architect in Japan to construct a building primarily out of paper, and it needed special approval to pass the Japanese building code, because the code had no category for it. He is drawn to paper for reasons that have nothing to do with fashion: it is low cost, recyclable, low-tech and replaceable.
That list is also a description of what a person who has just lost their house actually needs. His shelters, made to be put up by the people who will live in them, went up after the Kobe earthquake, in Turkey and in Rwanda, and then around the world. He built the Takatori Catholic Church in Kobe. He is not interested in the newest materials or techniques; he is interested in the idea behind the building, and he chooses the material to say it.
The rest of the work runs alongside it rather than instead of it. The Curtain Wall House in Tokyo in 1995. The Japanese pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover with Frei Otto, a 72 metre gridshell of paper tubes, which German building law obliged him to reinforce and which was recycled back into paper pulp when the exhibition closed. The Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch between 2012 and 2013, after the earthquake. Onagawa Station.
In 2014 he was named the thirty seventh recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious award in the field. The jury cited his use of material and his humanitarian work, and called him a committed teacher who is not only a role model for the younger generation but an inspiration. In July 2015 he began rebuilding homes for the victims of the Nepal earthquake, wood framed for flexibility, brick walled, quick to put up, and usable as schools as well as houses.
The moments
Shigeru Ban's timeline.
The 1950s
Born in Tokyo
Everyday. Tokyo, 1957.
The 1970s
California
Milestone, and it changed his direction. He left Japan to learn it.
The 1980s
Cooper Union, under Hejduk
Milestone, and it changed everything. One teacher, and the habit of mind he never lost.
Paper, because it is cheap
Milestone, and it changed everything. Four reasons, and not one of them is that it looks good.
The 1990s
The code had no category
Setback, and it changed everything. Nobody had written a rule for it, so he had to get one.
Build monuments, or shelters
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: take the paper to the disasters, taken, or keep it in the gallery. Kobe, Turkey, Rwanda, Christchurch, Onagawa, Nepal, and the Pritzker jury named that work in the citation.
Shelters in Rwanda
Milestone, and it changed everything. A house somebody can put up themselves, out of tubes.
Kobe, and a paper church
Milestone, and it changed everything. A church made of paper, after the earthquake.
The Curtain Wall House
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The other half of the practice, and it won prizes too.
The 2000s
A paper hall in Hanover
Milestone, and it changed everything. Seventy two metres of paper, recycled back into pulp afterwards.
The 2010s
France, and a doctorate
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Three honours in a year, and the tubes still going up.
A cathedral of cardboard
Milestone, and it changed everything. A city lost its cathedral, so he made one out of tubes.
The Pritzker Prize
Milestone, and it changed everything. The field gave its highest prize to the man who builds with rubbish.
Houses in Nepal
Milestone, and it changed everything. Quick to build, and they work as schools too.
Onagawa Station
Everyday. A town that was destroyed, and a station to come back to.
The paper tubes are still going up wherever the news has moved on from. What he set moving is a quiet correction to what architecture is for, made by somebody who could have spent forty years on permanent monuments and spent a great deal of it on buildings designed to be taken down.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His turned on deciding that the cheapest material in the building trade was the one worth mastering. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Shigeru Ban: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Shigeru Ban's character arc?
Why does Shigeru Ban build with paper?
What disaster work has Shigeru Ban done?
Did Shigeru Ban win the Pritzker Prize?
Where did Shigeru Ban study?
What is the Shigeru Ban paper pavilion in Hanover?
Where does this timeline of Shigeru Ban's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Shigeru Ban, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- The Pritzker Architecture Prize jury citation, 2014.
- His built work, as that biography lists it.
- The Time profile of twenty first century innovators in architecture and design.