despite spanning a generational and geographical
divide, the two architects share a visionary approach
to architecture.
aalto admired the commitment to craftsmanship and
sensitivity to natural materials that he found in japanese
architecture...

shigeru ban investigated the work of alvar aalto,
looking at the experimental ingredients,
the humanitarian intent and aalto’s compassion for
man at his weakest. both architects combine traditional
materials with modern technology and experimented
with the idea to provide an individual human touch to
pre-fabricated housing structures.

‘the ultimate goal of architecture’, said aalto in 1957,
‘is to create a paradise… every house, every product
of architecture…should be a fruit of our endeavour to
build an earthly paradise for people.’

shigeru ban’s students built many analitical models,
of aalto’s projects and ‘the golden section’ has been
found in them (though aalto always wanted to be far
away from modernist structures and schemes)...


shigeru ban on alvar aalto




designboom asked shigeru ban:


what are lessons are to be learnt from alvar aalto's
architecture today?
‘when I was a student I was mostly interested in so-called
'international architecture', functionalism - le corbusier and
mies van der rohe.
and as a student I was not particularily interested in alvar
aalto. I saw his drawings and photos, but when I had the
opportunity to come to finland to see alvar aalto by myself
it was such a great surprise.
aalto's architecture was much bigger than I thought and
than that of le corbusier or mies van der rohe.
the context was very important to understand aalto's
architecture. in that period he was using different materials,
raw materials and ... the existing context.
today, as you know, in the architecture world, people are
competing with strange shapes because they can be created
by a computer easily, without thinking about structure or context.
I think aalto's influence, working with context, is becoming
more important. at the moment people are just interested
in playing with different forms and strange shapes.
I don't think that can be the architecture which can stay
one hundred, two hundred years.
I think it's very important to work with the context instead
of just creating the shape out of computers!
(see more of ban's work below)

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see alvar aalto’s short biography

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see the images from the exhibition
‘alvar aalto - through the eyes of shigeru ban’








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shigeru ban at the barbican
the show showcases a few of shigeru ban’s works
which acknowledge a huge debt to aalto’s organic
approach to design.
ban began to use paper tubes as structural elements
in 1986 when he designed an aalto exhibition in toyko.
his subsequent experiments using recycled cardboard
broke the conventional notion of a building material.
the exhibition also features his revolutionary approach
to building temporary shelters with paper tubes to
house the displaced victims in the aftermath of the
1995 kobe earthquake.
this echoes aalto’s humane approach to architecture,
most evident in his designs for prefabricated houses
made in response to the world war II housing crisis
(the prefab houses have never been included in any
exhibition until now).
also on show are shigeru ban’is paper log house (1995),
the japan pavilion at expo hanover (2000) and his recent
design for the new pompidou centre in metz.

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see models of shigeru ban’s architecture

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see shigeru ban’s furniture

designboom archive:


shigeru ban's pavilion for artek, 2007

shigeru ban talk at the triennale milano, 2003