Shigeru Ban [Hardcover]

Emilio Ambasz (Author), Shigeru Ban (Author), Emilio Amasz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2001

Shigeru Ban may be best known for his evocative Curtain Wall House in Tokyo—a highlight of the Museum of Modern Art's 1999 Un-Private House exhibit—but few know the range of this Japanese architect's work. In this first English-language monograph on Ban, 30 built projects reveal his inventiveness and humanitarianism. Ban's primary objectives in his work are the use of low cost materials and the dissolution of the boundaries between interior and exterior spaces. His paper tube designs, which he first created as emergency housing for victims of Rwanda's civil war, were later reconfigured for earthquake victims in Kobe and are currently incorporated in Ban's Japanese Pavilion at Hannover Expo 2000. Influenced by the Japanese tradition of linking the home with the surrounding environment, Ban has created buildings such as Hanegi Forest and Walls—less House that invite nature to coexist with design.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mr. Ban is a brilliant designer of private houses, apartment houses, public buildings, and museum exhibitions. In these, he has displayed a striking talent for innovative form, structure, and spatial organization. Herbert Muschamp, New York Times

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568982348
• ISBN-13: 978-1568982342
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,248,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good supplementary reading to the same title from Phaidon, May 24, 2005

By 

ArchiZona "archidreamer" (Phoenix, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shigeru Ban (Hardcover)

I read this book and another volume with the same title published by Phaidon together. My suggestion is that read the Phaidon book first, then supplement with this one. Phaidon's book catpures the core of Ban's architectural identity and is well-organized by the building materials he used in the projects (paper, wood, bamboo, prefab, and skin). The text in that book is also technical, detail, and informative.

Though there are quite a few overlaps between these two books, this book includes more projects than the Phaidon volume. For example, it presents Ban's early works (emphasizing the use of walls), his exhibition installations (from which he got the inspiration of paper architecture), and more furniture house projects.

If I can only buy one book, I will definitely choose the Phaidon book and get a copy of this book from the library.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shigeru Ban, February 12, 2002

By 

Michael Webb (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shigeru Ban (Hardcover)

A must-have monograph that is as lucid, intelligent, and unpretentious as its subject-and at a bargain price. Ban combines a respect for the Japanese architectural tradition of simple, open, lightweight structures with the theoretical rigor he absorbed from John Hejduc, his teacher at Cooper Union. His signature element is the cardboard tube (first used as an economy in his installation of an Aalto exhibition) and since employed as the structural support for houses, a post-earthquake church in Kobe, a graceful canopy over the MoMA garden, and the Japanese Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover. Ban's oeuvre includes provocative private houses and temporary shelters for disaster victims.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Keeping it simple works!, October 27, 2002

By 

J. A. Dol (Groningen, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shigeru Ban (Hardcover)

If you are into architecture in any way, try this book. Although there is not a lot of usefull information in this book it is still a good read. It features simple and effective descriptions of some of his famous buildings which are illustrated by great photographs and small diagrams. And that is the power of this book: keeping it simple.