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Architect Shigeru Ban wins Pritzker Prize for innovative design, extensive humanitarian work

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This March 20, 2014 photo shows Tokyo-born architect Shigeru Ban, 56, the recipient of the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize, standing on the balcony of an apartment in the Metal Shutter Houses he designed in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who has combined a talent for innovative design and experimental use of everyday materials with extensive humanitarian efforts around the globe, has won the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Fifty-six-year-old Ban is the seventh architect from Japan to receive the honour, which will be officially awarded in June. For two decades, he has rushed to the site of disasters — for example, the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, or the 1994 conflict in Rwanda — to construct temporary relief shelters. He has often used cardboard paper tubes as building materials, since they are easily found, easily transported and can be water-proofed or fire-proofed.

Ban also designed the Centre Pompidou-Metz, a contemporary art museum in Metz, France.

He is based in Tokyo, Paris and New York.

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