Shigeru Ban discusses paper architecture at Mumbai design event

Shigeru Ban, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect known for building with paper, discussed lighter, socially minded construction at India Design ID 2026 in Mumbai.

In his keynote, *Balancing Architectural Works and Social Contribution*, Ban described a practice that extends beyond private commissions. Within a decade of starting his career, he began developing disaster-relief shelters using paper tubes that could be waterproofed and made structurally viable.

Ban cited the Paper Log House, built in Gujarat after the 2001 earthquake. His Paper Church was first built in Kobe after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake as a three-year structure. It lasted a decade before being dismantled and reconstructed in Taiwan as a community centre in 2008.

Paper tubes and wooden structures can reduce construction costs and labour, Ban said. He said approvals remain difficult because paper has no dedicated building regulations. His projects have undergone formal safety testing to meet standards in countries including New Zealand, France and Germany.

Ban also discussed his Tokyo public toilets, which use coloured glass that turns opaque when a person locks the door from inside. He said a building’s starting point should be the place and the problem it must solve.