Shigeru Ban, Japanese architect who is a world reference for its balanced constructionsfor the use of wood, paper and cardboard, and also for its urgent constructions for the population affected by major disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti is the new Princess of Asturias Award of concord. Its space division systems have been replicated in the last two years to maintain the privacy of users in vaccination centers against covid-19 and in some of the hospitals that had to be done urgently due to the coronavirus.
Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2014, Ban has always been characterized by the use of light materials, due to the desire to merge with the environment and for your concerns help in situations of need living place urgent. It has also been recognized for many years for its most unique constructions, those made from recycled cardboard tubes.
It has been said of this architect that he has found the sublime using very basic elements and generating very simple architectures that move. Shigeru Ban takes over, in the Concordia award, from the Asturian-American chef José Andrés, awarded by his NGO World Central Kitchen.
run away from fashion
Of American training, Shigeru Ban is an architect who is under continuous investigation and that he has always said that run away in the architecture of “fashions”. Hence, it is distinguished by designing buildings in which the emphasis on structure and materials prevails, and also the balance between respect for the environment, nature and the needs and wishes of the client.
Some of the latest projects of this great architect are buildings such as the Tainan Art Museum, in Taiwan; the offices and conference room of Swatch and Omega in Switzerland; the Haesley Hamlet sports complex in Korea or sophisticated transparent public toilets in Tokyo. The 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize was awarded to him in recognition of his “responses to extreme situations caused by devastating natural disasters, with creativity and high-quality design.” And in those projects he has followed later, in shelter systems, made from paper, cardboard and wood developed to divide larger spaces and manage to house large numbers of people, in conflicts or after catastrophes caused in large part by climate change.
On how he came to think of temporary structures that serve as homes and shelter after catastrophes, such as the one in Haiti in 2010, he himself has said that “I always saw that my fellow architects seemed to work only for rich and powerful people. I really wanted to use my work as an architect as vehicle to help people different, people with problems, homeless or with problems related to habitability & rdquor ;.
Award Jury
The Princess of Asturias Award for Concord is the last of the eight awarded for the 2022 edition. In this case, they came to the jury’s discussion 36 applications of 17 nationalities.
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With this Concordia award, “the work of defense and generalization of human rights, the promotion and protection of peace, freedom, solidarity, world heritage and, in general, the progress of humanity”.
The jury was made up of: the president of the Principality, Adrián Barbón Rodríguez (president); Pedro de Silva Cienfuegos-Jovellanos (secretary); Fernando de Almansa Moreno-Barreda, Viscount of the Castle of Almansa; Ernesto Antolin Arribas; Jose Antonio Caicoya Cores; Alfredo Canteli Fernandez; Manuel Contreras Caro; Sol Daurella Comadrán; Ignacio Eyriès García de Vinuesa; Isidro Faine Casas; Jose Antonio Fernandez Rivero; Luis Fernandez-Vega Sanz; Ana Gonzalez Rodriguez; Belen Gualda Gonzalez; Alicia Koplowitz Romero de Juséu; Laureano Lourido Artime; Marcelino Marcos Lindez; Adolfo Menendez Menendez; Enrique Moreno Gonzalez; Carlos Navalpotro Fuster; José Oliu i Creus; Maria del Pino Calvo-Sotelo; Marc Puig Guasch; Gregorio Rabanal Martinez; Helena Revoredo de Gut; Matías Rodríguez Inciarte; Gonzalo Sanchez Martinez; Juan Sánchez-Calero Guilarte; Antonio Suarez Gutierrez; Gonzalo Urquijo and Fernández de Araoz; Manuel Villa-Cellino Torre; Maarten Wetselaar and Ignacio Ybarra Aznar.