Business Times 19 Sep 08;
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban talks to GEOFFREY EU about working with his trademark materials and why he believes in the doctrine 'less is more'
EARLIER this month, the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was in Taiwan, presiding over the opening of a temporary church he had designed over a decade ago. Not a particularly noteworthy event in itself, except that it was actually a re-opening of sorts - the church had been first built in 1995 in Kobe, and was intended to be a temporary structure in the wake of an earthquake that had devastated that city.
More remarkable, perhaps, is the fact that the church was built using recycled paper tubes - materials that have since become a Ban trademark. It was taken apart and moved to Taiwan - another earthquake-prone country - before being reconstructed again. The Takitori Catholic Church has become a highly visible symbol of Ban's unusual solutions to natural disasters, using a building material that is far from permanent.
He discovered its strong load-bearing abilities in the 1980s, and has put that knowledge to good use ever since. Ban's 'paper houses' have been used in disaster areas from Turkey to Rwanda and his designs have been showcased in museums and exhibitions around the world.
Last week, on the not insignificant date of Sept 11, a temporary school built to Ban's specifications opened in Chengdu, the epicentre of a massive earthquake earlier this year.
21st-century innovator
Ban, 51, has been chalking up the frequent flyer miles lately. He was also here last week as a featured artist at this year's Singapore Biennale. His Containart Pavilion is an architectural structure comprising 150 20-foot containers and 34 10-metre-tall recycled tubes, and was designed to house large installations by three international artists. Ban previously contributed a media centre made from his ubiquitous paper tubes at the 2006 edition of the biennale.
The Tokyo-born, US-educated and Paris-based architect has won numerous awards for his work, and was cited by Time magazine in 2000 as a 21st-century innovator in the field of architecture and design.
The New York Times has called him an 'accidental environmentalist'. While his most well known works may be looked upon as prime examples of sustainable architecture, Ban himself doesn't subscribe to that notion.
'Sustainable architecture is a trend, and I don't like to follow trends,' he says. 'I started working with paper because I didn't want to waste wood. When I started working with paper tubes in 1986, no one was talking about recycling or sustainable issues. I was interested in raw materials, and the styling of a building has nothing to do with the strength of materials,' says Ban.
'It's the same with the life span of a building, which has nothing to do with the strength or durability of material - it just depends on whether people love the building or not.'
Ban, who contributed the Japanese Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Germany, says his focus lies in creating temporary buildings, and then demolishing them. 'My interest was when buildings were demolished and my goal was not the completion but the demolition.' He adds: 'I have privileged clients and have built museums and big houses, but my work is also most significant when dealing with natural disasters.'
New materials and technology have always been important throughout the history of architecture, says Ban. 'New architecture comes because of technology. I discovered my own identity when I started using paper for my interiors and found that it was much stronger than I expected - waterproofing and fireproofing is possible as well.'
The paper church in Kobe - now in Taiwan - has been given a second life, says Ban. 'It was meant to be temporary, but because people love it, that's why it became permanent.'
He adds: 'When I was younger, what I wanted to do was not what I ended up doing, but now, I can do what I have dreamt of doing.'
Ban accepts that advances in technology are inevitable, but he is no advocate of high-tech methods in architecture. 'Advances in technology don't make architecture more advanced,' he notes. 'When there were no computers, architecture was better. The computer age helped most fields, but not architecture - computers make it quicker, not better.' Ban says buildings were a lot better 500 years ago. 'Better architecture can be achieved if we spend more time designing, more time building.'
Having lived abroad for most of his working life, the architect doesn't consider himself to be imbued with a particularly Japanese sensibility. 'The idea of using a weak material is very much from Japanese culture, but I didn't consciously consider it - it just came naturally because I was interested in it.'
Ban, who travels regularly to the Middle East, says he is now exploring the use of sand as a building material. 'I'm not interested in working for big developers, but I am interested in local climate and using local materials.'
Ban is also a firm believer in the doctrine famously espoused by iconic designer Mies van der Rohe, who said in effect that less is more.
'I love this philosophy, it's not just simplistic - there's a more diverse meaning and function behind it,' explains Ban, who adds that a bridge would be the ideal embodiment of this approach. He has designed a paper bridge in the south of France, but he would like to come up with a span of a more permanent nature in the future.
Fulfilling projects
These days, Ban is getting more involved in disaster-relief projects. 'When I was younger, I envied people who were awarded big projects but now, after working in disaster relief, I feel much more fulfilled - I think this is very important,' he says. 'Historically, architects have been working for privileged people, corporations and governments in order to make their power and money - where it was invisible - more visible.' He adds: 'Now there are so many disasters all over the world, and some were man-made - earthquakes never kill people, but the collapse of buildings does.'
It is no longer necessary for architecture to be so permanent, says Ban, who also goes to Tokyo twice a month to teach at Keio University. 'The meaning and necessity of architecture is really changing now. I've done museums, high-end condos, and I'm not happy only working for privileged people. When I work in disaster relief, I am able to find my own mental balance.'
