Shigeru Ban, the Japanese architect, is known for turning discarded materials into remarkable buildings. He uses cardboard tubes, beer crates, shipping containers, and even styrofoam to create homes, churches, and shops. Ban’s work blends beauty and purpose, showing that even simple materials can support strong, lasting structures. Ban believes all buildings are temporary. In cities like Tokyo or Los Angeles, large structures often disappear to make way for more profitable developments. “A building made of paper can be permanent if people cherish it,” he says. His projects range from luxury boutiques to refugee housing, always focusing on improving people’s lives, especially in disaster zones. Ban recently received the 2026 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and is lecturing in London, but his core mission remains creating flexible, lifesaving architecture. He is currently building a hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, using cross-laminated timber sourced locally. The timber, once exported abroad, is now used to help rebuild within the country. In 1995, after the Kobe earthquake, Ban designed the Paper Dome, a temporary replacement for a destroyed church. Volunteers built it in five weeks using recycled cardboard tubes. The dome, inspired by Bernini’s Sant’Andrea al Quirinale in Rome, became a community center hosting weddings, concerts, and film screenings. After a decade, it was dismantled and shipped to Taomi, Taiwan, which had also suffered an earthquake, where it still stands today. Ban first began experimenting with cardboard tubes in 1985, long before environmental issues were widely discussed. Inspired by traditional Japanese shoji screens and centuries of paper-making, he realized that paper tubes could hold roofs and create strong structures. He worked with structural engineer Gengo Matsui to develop a building system approved by the Japanese Ministry of Construction, proving that discarded materials could be used safely and effectively. Following the Kobe earthquake, Ban created modular houses for displaced Vietnamese families. Cardboard tube walls rested on beer crate foundations, with light tent-like roofs. He also designed cardboard partitions for temporary shelters, ensuring privacy for people sleeping on the floor. This system is now widely used in disaster relief scenarios, including after the 2022 refugee crisis in Ukraine. Ban founded the Voluntary Architects’ Network, an NGO that builds temporary and low-cost housing for disaster victims worldwide. Using recyclable local materials and local labor, the network bridges the gap between emergency relief and permanent reconstruction. His larger projects include a temporary concert hall in L’Aquila, Italy, after an earthquake, and the famous Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand, built after the 2011 quake destroyed the city’s gothic revival cathedral. The cathedral uses 60cm cardboard tubes reinforced with laminated timber, forming a soaring A-frame with a cardboard cross above the altar. Despite his disaster relief work, Ban also designs luxury buildings. He has created high-end boutiques in Tokyo, a basket-weave art museum in Aspen, Colorado, and an outpost of Paris’s Pompidou Centre in Metz, France. He is now designing a timber distillery in Scotland’s Speyside, which promises an elaborate, almost fantastical wooden structure. Ban emphasizes that architects often work for the wealthy, creating monuments to power. He chooses to use his expertise for ordinary people, especially those who have lost homes to disasters. He is currently rebuilding houses on Japan’s Noto Peninsula after the 2024 earthquake, recycling timber from a ring-shaped installation originally built for Osaka Expo, along with salvaging roof tiles and other materials from destroyed homes. His philosophy is clear: waste not, want not. Ban’s architecture proves that discarded materials can become life-saving shelters, elegant churches, and luxury buildings. His work challenges the boundaries of design, showing that strength, beauty, and social responsibility can emerge from what others throw away.