Ban and his cardboard columns. (Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin)

Interior, Nomadic Museum(Michael Moran)

Paper Log House, Kobe, Japan 1995.(Takanobu Sakuma)

A temporary 230-seat “Paper Concert Hall” in Italy (Fabio Mantovani)

Cardboard Cathedral, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2013(Stephen Goodenough)

When an earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011, Ban created a temporary, 700-personal cathedral out of paper tubes.

“What is the difference between temporary architecture and permanent architecture?” No architect is more qualified to explore that question than Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. “Temporary” architecture, in disaster zones, is Ban’s calling card. For over 20 years, the 2014 winner of the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s Nobel, has best been known for his well-publicized humanitarian work. From Rwanda to Japan to Nepal, he has turned cheap, locally-sourced objects—sometimes even debris—into disaster-relief housing that “house both the body and spirit,” as Architectural League president Billie Tsien puts it.

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