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Shigeru Ban

Shigeru Ban Quotes

Architect

Shigeru Ban is a renowned Japanese architect born on August 5, 1957, in Tokyo. He is celebrated for his innovative use of sustainable materials, particularly cardboard tubes, in architecture. Ban graduated from Cooper Union in New York and founded Shigeru Ban Architects in 1995. His work spans cultural facilities, residential buildings, and disaster relief structures. In 2014, he received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest honor in architecture, recognizing his contributions to material innovation and humanitarian efforts.

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Famous Shigeru Ban Quotes

“I believe that the material doesn’t need to be strong to be used to build a strong structure. The strength of the structure has nothing to do with the strength of the material.”

Needs Believe Used Strong I Believe Materials Structure

Author:Shigeru Ban

“Architecture is not about designing somehting from a free, fanciful idea. It is about discovering and establishing one's own principle, some kind of regularity - finding an individual formula to apply to one's buildings.”

Kind Ideas Individual Principles Design Building Findings Architecture Formulas Discovering Regularity

Author:Shigeru Ban

“I travel a lot. Japanese culture is very ancient and very strong. That's why most people who commission work from Japanese architects expect them to create works that have an element of exoticism, the kind typical of Japanese culture. I don't do that.”

People Kind Culture Strong Ancient Architect Very Strong

Author:Shigeru Ban

“The most important thing, in order to forge one's own creative personality, is to travel, to see different environments, different cultures. I wanted to try to imagine a new kind of structure in architecture. In general, architects follow fashions. They're neoclassical, postmodern.”

Trying Kind Important Different Culture Creative Environment Imagine Fashion Personality Architecture Architect Different Cultures Postmodern

Author:Shigeru Ban

“I did a lot of tests, and I finalized my research. Paper has become a part of my visual vocabulary. You know, paper is an industrial material. You can do almost anything with it. Wood, for example, is much more difficult to adapt to different needs.”

Different Difficult

Author:Shigeru Ban

“For me, there's no difference between what's temporary and what's definitive. I built the church in Kobe, which was supposed to be temporary, and people liked it so much that there's a version of it still there today - unlike some concrete buildings that were just built for money and that can be destroyed from one day to the next. Concrete can be very fragile during earthquakes.”

People Today Church Building One Day Temporary Concrete

Author:Shigeru Ban

“Architects mostly work for privileged people, people who have money and power. Power and money are invisible, so people hire us to visualize their power and money by making monumental architecture. I love to make monuments, too, but I thought perhaps we can use our experience and knowledge more for the general public, even for those who have lost their houses in natural disasters.”

People Use House Lost Natural Architecture Disaster Invisible Architect Privileged Monument General Public Natural Disaster Money And Power

Author:Shigeru Ban

“I'm not inventing anything new, I'm just using existing material differently.”

Materials Inventing

Author:Shigeru Ban

“Everyone used to want to be star architects. That's no longer the case.”

Want Used Stars Cases Architecture Architect

Author:Shigeru Ban

“An architect does not need to spend his whole career making monuments for rich people.”

People Needs Doe Whole Careers Rich Architect Monument Rich People

Author:Shigeru Ban

“People are not killed by earthquakes alone, but by collapsed buildings.”

People Building Earthquakes

Author:Shigeru Ban

About the Author

Born: August 5, 1957
Known for: Architect
Quotes: 11

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