SHIGERU BAN I didn’t have enough money to use expensive wood for the set-up of the exhibition for Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. The idea that wood is wasted after the show bothered me as well. At that time I still had some leftover paper-tubes from a previous project in my office. I thought what a pity to throw them away, better use them for Alvar Aalto. Issey Miyake’s MDS Gallery in Tokyo became the first permanent paper-tube structure building, after I got the permission from the government.
RH“Earthquakes don’t kill people. Buildings do! If we build them better, people don’t die!” is a famous quote of yours. Your paper-tubes provide quick and affordable housings to quake victims and refugees worldwide. Kobe, Rwanda, Turkey and now India. Seems like Japan is exporting a very unique architectural style after all, which culminated in your Japanese Pavilion at the Hanover World Expo (2000).
SBAll cities in Japan were destroyed during the war same as in Germany. When Japan rebuilt the cities, it used modern materials such as iron and concrete in its buildings, but it restricted Japan’s historical continuation of its own architectural style. In other words, modernization of architecture was a synonym of westernization. On the other hand, European countries including your country Germany could continue its architectural tradition, even though they used modern materials. For us Japanese, modernization was westernization, and that cut off our history. That’s why our cities became chaotic. This has a positive and a negative side. On the positive side, it gives us the freedom to basically do anything we like in architecture.
RH“Anything goes” is that what makes Japanese contemporary architecture different from other cultures?
SBJapanese contemporary architecture has a certain identity because of freedom, and I want to use the word “freedom” in a negative way. In our country Japanese architects are spoiled. If somebody asks a famous architect to do a project, the client doesn’t give him or her a hard time. Clients are not supposed to ask “why?” For instance, why this shape?
