Shigeru Ban homage to Alvar Alto

Shigeru Ban’s homage to Alvar Aalto took the form of a well-received exhibition at London’s Barbican. Ban is perhaps the best known Japanese architect practicing in the West, with the upcoming Pompidou Centre in Metz sure to add to his reputation.

Ban’s fascination with the Finnish architect stems from Aalto’s mastery of context, melding architecture with the landscape with a palette of sympathetic materials and forms. Most obviously, Aalto’s use of slender wooden columns has been translated into Ban’s signature structural cardboard tubes.

22 June 2007 | Architecture