March 25, 2014

Pritzker Prize for Architecture

As you may know, I am president of the Board of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and I also sit on the Board of the Baltimore Chapter of the AIA. I’ve always been interested in architecture and follow it closely.

So I was interested to learn that the profession’s most prestigious prize, The Pritzker was just awarded to Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban. He’s not a big “starchitect” like Frank Gehry, but someone who works with people in a time of need and who works with easily and locally accessible materials.

In New Zealand, he built a cathedral out of cardboard tubes to replace the one which had been badly damaged in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.image

He devised the Paper Partition System to give families some privacy when they’re living in shelters, such as this one after the 2011 Japanese earthquake. image

He also created homes out of shipping containers after the Japanese tsunami.image

These paper-log houses were built after the Kobe earthquake.image

Ban plays with materials in unusual ways. In the 1995 Curtain Wall House, he uses double height curtains to conceal and reveal.image

It is so refreshing to see someone who uses architecture for the good others, and not for some crazy vanity project, win an award like the Pritzker Prize. image

Now, they just need to award it to some women architects!

8 comments:

  1. I follow a blog called silkannthreades of a woman who lives in the city and she has posted real pics of it and has shared how much hope the building has brought so for that alone he deserves it!

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    1. I have heard from friends in NZ how great the Cardboard Church is!

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  2. This is fantastic! I really enjoy reading this blog every morning -- I learn so much here about interesting things that I don't have time to discover on my own. By the way, Meg, I don't know if you saw this column on Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoe-lintzeris/baltimore-americas-charm-city_b_5007547.html
    I wonder if the writer got this theme from you or came up with it herself--when I first saw the title I was excited to think that HP had given you some space.

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    1. Thanks so much! And thanks for the link. I added a comment to it!

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks! I love finding things like this to share.

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  4. Replies
    1. Thanks! I was delighted to see that he got the prize!

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