Lecture: Beyond Paper and Curtain: Works and Humanitarian Activities

February 19, 2001

Lecture: Beyond Paper and Curtain: Works and Humanitarian Activities
Shigeru Ban (Architect; Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center)
The New Jersey School of Architecture, New Jersey Institute of Technology
5:30 PM
For further information about this lecture, please call 973-596-3080.

One of Japan’s leading younger architects, Mr. Ban gained international attention for his low-cost quickly built relief structures, using durable cardboard tubing, built in Kobe immediately following the earthquake of January 1995.  He has since constructed similar buildings for victims of earthquakes and other natural disasters in Turkey and Rwanda.

 Born in 1957, Mr. Ban received his architecture degree from Cooper Union Univ. (NY), following study at the Southern California Institute of Architecture.  He worked in the architecture firm of Arata Isozaki (1982-83).  In 1995, Mr. Ban established an NGO called Voluntary Architects Network (VAN) and soon afterward was made special consultant of the UN High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR).  He is also active as a designer of private homes, apartment houses and public-housing developments, galleries, museums, railway stations for JR, and furniture and industrial designs.

Mr. Ban’s awards include:  SD Architect of the Year (1985); Tokyo Society of Architects House Award  (1993); Mainichi Design Prize (1995); Tokyo Journal Innovative Arts Award (1996); Shinkenchiku Magazine Yoshioka Award (1996); Intl. Architects Academy Ecopolis Award (1996); Japan Institute of Architects Best Young Architect of the Year Award (1997); JIA Tohoku Award (1998).
Mr. Ban is a Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a program supported by the United States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the NJIT Japanese Student Association