PRFDHR, CEAS, YSOA Lecture: Balancing Architectural Works and Social Contributions, Professor Shigeru Ban

Lecture & Q&A (6:00pm-7:30pm) in-person or livestreamed via YouTube; Reception to follow the lecture (7:30pm - 8:30pm) at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery (2nd floor).

Shigeru Ban is an architect, educator, and humanitarian with a global perspective. He believes in the capacity of architecture to raise the quality of life for all people, whether through arts and civic engagement, or emergency shelters in the wake of disasters. The lecture will begin by tracing the evolution of Ban’s public and residential works, exploring structural and material innovations ranging from paper tube constructions to contemporary mass timber buildings. Next, Ban will address the need for and nature of temporary structures to support people displaced by natural disasters and refugee crises. Currently, Ban is working to provide housing for Ukrainian refugees and survivors of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

Shigeru Ban was born in Tokyo, Japan and graduated from the Cooper Union’s School of Architecture in New York City. He started working for Arata Isozaki & Associates in 1982 and founded Shigeru Ban Architects in 1985. He became a consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1995. He established the NGO, Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) in the same year to support disaster relief. Some of his selected works include: the Centre Pompidou - Metz, the Õita Prefectural Art Museum, the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre, the Picture Window House in Shizuoka, the Musical Complex of La Seine Musicale, and the Swatch Omega Headquarters. Shigeru Ban is the recipient of multiple awards, including La Grande Médaille d’Or de l’Académie d’Architecture, France (2004), the Prize of the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) for Design (2009), le grade d’Officier for L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (2010), the Auguste Perret Prize (2011), the Art Prize from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (2012), le grade de Commandeur for L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (2014), the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2014), the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, Japan (2017), the Mother Teresa Social Justice Award (2017) and the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord (2022). He is an ambassador among “distinguished thinkers and practitioners” for the New European Bauhaus high-level roundtable (2021). Shigeru Ban is currently Professor at Keio University in Minato, Tokyo at the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies and the Graduate School of Media and Governance.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Yale School of Architecture (YSoA), the Council of East Asian Studies (CEAS), and the Program on Refugees, Forced Displacement and Humanitarian Responses (PRFDHR) at the Yale MacMillan Center.