Shigeru Ban at the Cooper Union

The annual Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment is delivered by an international figure whose work has significant implications for the relationship between architecture and the environment.

As he mused about his time at the Cooper Union, calling them the ‘toughest years of my life,’ many at the 2008 Franzen lecture were nonetheless thankful for the renaissance upbringing of Shigeru Ban. 

With an easy air and a casual banter, much of Ban’s presentation of his seminal works were easily understandable, not the least because of his questionable English and telling Japanese accent; but because of the right simplicity of his diverse oeuvre.

Shunning complex dogmas and manifestos, Ban’s message is simple. Architects, even in this age of the public spectacle, have a responsibility to create places for their fellow human beings; “monuments for the people“, he said. He posited a simple scenario; describing the unique challenge that building simple structures with simple materials posed to the architect of today.

Much of Ban’s work has centered around disaster relief, in a much publicized partnership with the United Nations to build shelters for disaster victims in places ranging from Kobe in his native Japan, to tsunami victims in Southern Sri Lanka. Using plastic sheets and his trademark paper tubes, Ban designed contextually sensitive, respectably humane relief shelters to help alleviate the tragedies while people tried to restart their lives. It goes to show how humble means can achieve great feats.

While Ban’s work in disaster sites aims to rebuild walls, his architecture in other areas have worked at eliminating them altogether, in the name of a different cause. In works like Curtain Wall House (1995) and Naked House (2000), Ban redefined boundaries within the private dwelling unit by administering his brand of simple, smart and slightly tongue-in-cheek architectural wit, penetrating walls and conceptually eliminating them altogether in Furniture House 1 (1995) by using Furniture as structure. The Japan Expo Pavilion in Hannover (2000) marked a highlight in his career, working with Professor Frei Otto to realize a 3 dimensional curve, originally designed to be made entirely of paper and fabric.

While many envision short lifespans for Ban’s paper-buildings, they have proven more permanent than temporary in the long run. Some have even been given ’second lives’ in alternative locations, like the Nomadic Museum and Paper Church. Whether his work is breaking down walls to create new opportunities for human interaction, or mending tears in the social and urban fabric; one can be sure that the world wouldn’t want to start 2008 without the ever resourceful Shigeru Ban.

Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban Architects
Tuesday, January 22
7:00 p.m.
The Great Hall,
The Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street

The 2007-8 Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment, an annual invited lecture by an international figure whose work has significant implications for understanding and reconceiving the relationship between architecture and the environment, will be delivered by Shigeru Ban. The annual lecture was created in honor of long-time League trustee Ulrich Franzen.

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban’s innovative work tests the limits of structure and form. Often based on elements derived from traditional Japanese architecture, his firm’s designs are ecologically sensitive and flexibly programmed, from quickly constructed temporary paper structures to modular, reconfigurable galleries and pavilions to permanent urban structures. Recent and current work includes the Nomadic Museum; the Seikei Library; Papertainer Museum, Seoul; Nicolas G. Hayek Center, Tokyo; the Metal Shutter Houses; and the Pompidou Center – Metz.

Shigeru Ban received his Bachelor of Architecture from Cooper Union in 1984. In 1985, Ban established Shigeru Ban Architects in Tokyo. Over the years, the firm has won many awards, including AIA Honor awards, World Architecture Awards, the Grande Medaille France Academie d’architecture, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. Currently, he is Professor at Keio University. In 2004, he was named an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Co-sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union.

JJ is co-founder of 5ft Creatives and is currently based in New York.