Shigeru Ban: PAPER LOG HOUSE FOR LOS ANGELES

In January 2025, Los Angeles experienced some of the most devastating wildfires in its history, burning over 57,000 acres and destroying more than 18,000 buildings. Altadena was significantly impacted, with approximately 14,000 acres burned and more than 9,400 buildings destroyed, approximately 4,400 of which were homes.

This installation proposal delineates a strategy for constructing interim housing on sites in Altadena or nearby in an effort to get residents back to their neighborhoods. The house design is comprised of low-cost materials which can be fabricated off-site and are easy to reassemble on-site by predominantly unskilled labor. The entire house can be erected in a few days. The house can later be disassembled and relocated. The overall size is freely adjustable.

Shigeru Ban has been involved in numerous humanitarian projects throughout the world, starting with the Paper Log House after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The design criteria for the temporary housing for the Kobe Earthquake victims called for an inexpensive structure that could be built by anyone, with satisfactory insulation and acceptable appearance, that would be easy to dismantle and recycle afterwards. The solution was a kind of log-house cabin with a foundation of sand-filled beer crates, walls of paper tubes, and a roof and ceiling made of tent membranes. Since 1995, the Paper Log House has been built after numerous natural disasters around the world, including Turkey, India, Maui, Morrocco, Korea, among other countries.

In addition to the Paper Log House, Ban and his Voluntary Architect's Network (VAN) have invented numerous housing and community building solutions that have sought to bring relief and comfort to people who are in the most need after nature's disasters.

BIO

Born in Tokyo in 1957, Ban graduated from the Cooper Union with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1984. He founded Shigeru Ban Architects in 1985 and later established offices in New York and Paris. Since 1985, Ban has developed a unique structural system using recycled paper as a building material and, alongside his architectural work, has been engaged in disaster relief efforts worldwide. In 1995, he founded a nonprofit organization named Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN). He is the recipient of le grade de commandeur of L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (2014), the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2014), the Mother Teresa Social Justice Award (2017), the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord (2022), and the Praemium Imperiale for Architecture (2024). His major works include Centre Pompidou Metz (2010, France), Cardboard Cathedral (2013, NZ), La Seine Musicale (2017, France), Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre Shizuoka (2017, France), Tainan Art Museum (2019), SIMOSE (2023), and Toyota City Museum (2024). Currently, he serves as Special Guest Professor at Shibaura Institute of Technology. In March 2025, he was named a new member of the Japan Art Academy.