On December 4, 2025, the American Institute of Architects announced that Shigeru Ban has been awarded the 2026 AIA Gold Medal, celebrating a career that has fundamentally expanded architecture's definition of responsibility. The AIA Gold Medal, the institute's highest individual honor, acknowledges architects whose work has made a lasting influence on theory and practice. From paper tube shelters in disaster zones to acclaimed cultural institutions, Ban's work demonstrates how material innovation and humanitarian action can exist as two sides of the same commitment. Over four decades, Shigeru Ban Architects has steadily reshaped architectural thinking through structural clarity, material curiosity, and an unwavering dedication to social impact.

Image Credit: Shigeru Ban Architects

Renewable Materials as Structural Systems

Ban’s practice is widely recognized for pioneering the use of renewable materials, particularly paper and timber, as legitimate structural systems. What began as an effort to reduce waste in exhibition design evolved into a body of work that challenged long-standing assumptions about permanence, strength, and architectural value.

His paper-tube structures are a great example of this approach. Developed initially for temporary installations, the system matured into a versatile construction method used for disaster relief shelters, community buildings, and permanent works such as the Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand. These projects demonstrate how inexpensive, recyclable materials can deliver architectural dignity, resilience, and spatial clarity.

Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand - Image Credit: Liz Keizerwaard

Timber has played a similarly critical role. At the Centre Pompidou-Metz, completed in 2010, Ban and collaborator Jean de Gastines designed a complex Vierendeel gridshell roof inspired by traditional Chinese hats. The woven timber structure spans the museum with precision and lightness, translating structural logic directly into architectural expression.

Centre Pompidou-Metz in Metz, France - Image Credit: Guido Radig

Mass Timber at Architectural Scale

Ban’s influence on contemporary mass timber architecture is particularly evident in the Swatch and Omega Campus in Biel, Switzerland, completed in 2019. The project combines post-and-beam systems and expansive gridshell structures constructed from approximately 160,000 cubic feet of sustainably sourced Swiss timber. Beyond its scale, the campus demonstrates how renewable materials can support ambitious architectural programs while remaining deeply tied to local resource cycles.

Swatch/Omega Campus in Biel, Switzerland - Image Credit: Didier Boy de la Tour

Other projects extend this material exploration through inventive structural strategies. The GC Osaka uses timber to fireproof steel, the Tamedia Office Building is known for its expressive hardwood joinery, and Tamadic Nagoya employs cross-laminated timber as permanent formwork to create a biophilic workplace environment despite restrictive building codes. In the United States, works such as the Aspen Art Museum and Cast Iron House in New York reflect Ban’s sensitivity to context and his ability to balance innovation with architectural continuity.

In the United States, New York's Cast Iron House reinterprets the logic of historic cast iron facades through contemporary aluminum construction, while the Aspen Art Museum pairs a woven timber screen with an open circulation strategy that engages both climate and street life.

Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, CO, USA - Image Credit: Shigeru Ban Architects

Designing for Humanity and Resilience

Humanitarian work remains inseparable from Shigeru Ban’s broader practice. Following the 1995 Kobe earthquake, he founded the Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN), an NGO dedicated to disaster relief and support for displaced communities worldwide. Ban’s philosophy holds that architectural expertise should serve all communities, especially those affected by crisis. VAN has been involved in relief efforts in numerous countries, including Japan, Turkey, China, Haiti, Ukraine, and the United States. 

Project include innovative responses such as paper partition systems installed in evacuation and refugee centers to provide privacy for displaced populations in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, and France, and paper-tube and hybrid housing prototypes used after wildfires and earthquakes. Speed, adaptability, and human dignity guide each intervention, and the same research-driven material systems that define Ban’s experimental work enable rapid deployment in moments of crisis.

Maui Paper Log House in Maui, HI, USA - Image Credit: Shigeru Ban Architects

The AIA Gold Medal joins a list of international honors that include the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord, and the Praemium Imperiale for Architecture. Together, they recognize a body of work defined by material ingenuity, sustained humanitarian commitment, and a belief in architecture’s capacity to create a more equitable and sustainable world. The medal will be formally presented at the AIA Conference on Architecture and Design in 2026.

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