Shigeru Ban Wins Pritzker Prize for Architecture

The winner of the 2014 Pritzker Prize for architecture is Japan’s Shigeru Ban, reports the New York Times. He is known for providing humanitarian aid by creating temporary structures from impermanent materials, such as paper, to house the victims of natural disasters. Ban has built emergency shelters in Rwanda, China, Turkey, Haiti, India, and Japan.

In addition to his relief work, Ban has designed several museums over the course of his career, most notably the Nomadic Museum, a traveling construct built from shipping containers to house Gregory Colbert‘s photography and film exhibition “Ashes and Snow.” It debuted in the Venice Arsenale in 2002, and Ban was the architect for later iterations beginning with a 2005 appearance in New York.

The architect is also responsible for France’s Centre Pompidou Metz, the Papertainer Museum, Seoul; and the new Aspen Art Museum building, which will open in August.

The Pritzker, considered the Nobel Prize for architects, was created in 1979 and has been awarded to such luminaries as Renzo Piano, I.M. Pei, and Frank Gehry. Ban will receive a $100,000 grant at a June 13 ceremony at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.