SALONE NEWS 2007 in Milan vol.21
Shigeru Ban’s ARTEK

In the yard of Triennale is a cabin by Shigeru Ban. The recyclable material of plastic and pulp molded in the forms of H and T like those of steel structures, makes up of this cabin. Some material used for its horizontal parts claimed to be recyclable are a little bent, which causes me a little worry.
Mr. Shigeru Ban is a professor of architecture under whose instruction my son, ’Shou’ is studying architecture. (Shou is in the junior year of a college now and is going to make his debut as an architect before long.) So I specially feel like praising him, this cabin, however, seems to have nothing special that deserves the word of special compliment. Interesting factor is just its material.

The visible activity he is recently playing is just great. I saw the models and plans of the annex of POMPIDOU CENTER he worked on. They made me feel that, when he worked on that work, he was more interested in space-designing than the material to realize it, which has usually been his initial interest in his architectural work such as the structural capability of paper-pipes for building houses.

I believe that to make good architecture, we must start with ‘finding some material at hand’ and then, study ‘how to use the found material for building something’ , after that, ‘develop the architectural technology based on the relationship between the structures and their materials’. This process must go along with ‘good feeling of living good life’ that should be brought about by good architecture.　I’ve liked his attitude in his work as an architect because of such a belief of mine.

The POMPIDOU CENTER seems to try to make the architecture urbanized by means of realizing continuity or consistency of the architecture with a metropolis. The huge rectangular box is directed to the old memorial buildings of Paris, with the shelter covering the huge box, the idea of which came from a weaved Asian hat. The technology used for its creation is high. It makes me a little drawn back compared with my usual attitude concerning his works, though.

It seems that each show booth of ARTEK is designed so that we can see a prestigious old building of Paris with our mind eyes like a telescope. This is a kind of additional story.