Introduction: Christian W. Blaser, Architektur Dialoge Basel
Swissbau | Congress Center Basel | San Francisco Hall
The Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, was born in Tokyo in 1957. He studied in Los Angeles and under John Hejduk in New York City and graduated in 1984. Shigeru Ban became famous mainly because of his constructions with cardboard paper tubes. Among his best known projects are the Paper Church – Kobe in Hyogo, the Odawara Festival Main Hall in Odawara and the cardboard Japan Pavillion for the Expo 2000 in Hannover, built in collaboration with Otto Frei. In 2004 he was awarded the Gold Medal from the French Academy of Architecture. Currently the Centre Pompidou in Metz as well as the office building of Tamedia AG on the Werd complex in Zurich are being built according to plans by Shigeru Ban.