Shigeru Ban, 2024 Laureate of Architecture 【Official Video】

Shigeru Ban played rugby from elementary school through high school. After graduating, he moved to the United States to study at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and later transferred to the Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York City. During a leave of absence, he worked for Arata Isozaki & Associates in Tokyo. Upon graduation, he returned to Japan and opened his own practice. In 1995, as an advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ban built a shelter out of paper tubes in a Rwandan refugee camp. In the same year, he built temporary housing for victims of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. This experience led him to found the Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN), which provides architectural relief to refugees and disaster victims around the world. Ban has designed numerous innovative buildings, including the "Centre Pompidou-Metz" (2010) with its undulating laminated wood and membrane roof, "La seine musicale" (2017) and the "Swatch Omega" (2019). Winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, he continues to fulfill his mission as an architect in times of peace and in times of crisis.