Shigeru Ban: Emergency shelters made from paper

Translator: Iris Xholi Reviewer: Helena Bedalli Hello. I am an architect. I am the only architect in the world who makes

paper

buildings like this cardboard tube, and this exhibition is the first one I have

made

using cardboard tubes. In 1986, long before ecological and environmental problems began to be talked about, I began to test the

paper

tube to use it as a building structure. The tests of the new construction material are very complicated, but it is much more resistant than I expected, and it is very easy to insulate from water, and also, being an industrial material, it is also resistant to fire.

Then in 1990 I built the temporary structure. This is the first temporary building

made

of paper. There are 330 tubes, with a diameter of 55 cm, there are only 12 tubes with a diameter of 120 cm. As you can see in this image, inside there is a bathroom. In case you run out of toilet paper, you can tear some off the inside of the wall. (Laughs) So it's very useful. In 2000 there was a big exhibition in Germany. I was asked to design the building because the theme of the exhibition was environmental issues. They chose me to build the section with cardboard tubes, recyclable paper.

My design goal was not to complete it. My goal was to demolish the building. Because each country builds many sections, but after 6 months large amounts of industrial waste are generated, which my building must reuse or recycle. After that, the building was recycled. So this was the goal of my project. Then I was lucky enough to win the competition to build France's second Pompidou Center in the city of Metz. Since I was very poor and wanted to rent an office in Paris, but couldn't afford it, I decided to bring my students to Paris, to build our office above the Pompidou center, all with their own forces. our.

I bring the paper tubes and wooden joints to make the 35 meter long office. We stayed there for six years without paying rent. (Laughter) (Applause) Thank you. I had a big problem. Since we were part of the exhibition, if a friend of mine wanted to meet me he had to buy tickets. That was the problem. Then I finished the Pompidou Center in Metz. It is now a very popular museum and I created a great monument for the government. But then I felt very disappointed with my profession as an architect, because we do not help, we do not work for society, but we work for the privileged, the rich, the government, the developers.

They have money and power. These are invisible. So they hire us to show power and money by creating monumental architecture. This is our profession, historically it is the same, even now we do the same. That's why I was very disappointed that we were not working for society, even though there are many people who have lost their homes due to natural disasters. But I must say that these are not natural disasters. For example, earthquakes never kill people; It is the collapse of buildings that kills people. This is the responsibility of the architects. So people need temporary housing, but it is not architects who do this work because we are too busy working for the privileged.

Then I thought, even as architects we can dedicate ourselves to the reconstruction of temporary housing. We can improve it. That's why I started working in the devastated areas. In 1994, a major disaster occurred in Rwanda, Africa. Two tribes, Hutu and Tutsi, fought against each other. More than two million people became refugees. But I was very surprised when I saw the shelter, the refugee camp organized by the United Nations. They are very poor and were cold with blankets during the rainy season, in the

shelters

built by the United Nations they were only given a raincoat and the refugees had to cut down the trees.

But let's think about more than two million people cutting down trees. It became a major deforestation and ecological problem. For this reason, they started supplying aluminum pipes and sheds. Very expensive things, that people sell to make money and start cutting down trees again. At this point I proposed my idea of ​​improving the situation by using recycled cardboard tubes because it is economical and resistant. My budget is only 50 US dollars per unit. We built 50 units to use as resistance, humidity, termite and other monitoring tests. And then the next year, in 1995, in Kobe, Japan, a huge earthquake occurred.

Almost 7,000 people lost their lives and a city like Nagata district was completely burned in a fire after the earthquake. I discovered that there were many Vietnamese refugees who were suffering and had gathered in a Catholic church, whose building was completely destroyed. I went there and proposed to the priests: "Why don't we build the church with cardboard tubes?" A priest said, "Oh, God, aren't you crazy? What kind of proposal is this after a fire?" He never trusted me, but I didn't give up. I started going back and forth to Kobe and met the Vietnamese community. They lived like this with very cheap raincoats in a park.

So I proposed rebuilding. I made a pledge and raised funds. I created a tubular cardboard shelter for them, and to make it easier for the students to build it as well as tear it down, I used beer crates as a base. I asked the Kirin brewing company, because at that time the Asahi brewing company had made the beer boxes red, which does not match the color of the cardboard tubes. Color coordination is very important. And I remember that we expected that there would be a beer inside the plastic box, but it came empty. (Laughs) I remember this cast being disappointing.

During the summer with my students, we built about 50

shelters

. In the end, the priest finally trusted us to rebuild. He said: "As long as you raise the necessary funds yourself and bring your students to build it, you can do it." So, we spent five weeks rebuilding the church. It was supposed to stay there for three years, but it actually stayed there for 10 years, because people liked it. Another strong earthquake occurred in Taiwan and we proposed to donate this church, so we assembled it and sent it there for volunteers to build. This church is still found today in Taiwan, as a permanent church.

This building became a permanent building. I was thinking, what's the difference between a permanent building and a temporary one? Even a cardboard building can be permanent if people like it. Even a concrete building can be very temporary if this brings any benefit. In 1999 there was a big earthquake in Türkiye and I went there to build shelters with local materials. In 2001, in the West Indies, I also built a shelter. In 2004, in Sri Lanka, after the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, I rebuilt Islamic fishing villages. In 2008, in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, almost 70,000 people lost their lives and, above all, many schools were destroyed as a result of corruption between authorities and contractors.

He asked me to rebuild a contemporary church. I brought my Japanese students to work with the Chinese students. In one month we completed nine classrooms, measuring about 500 square meters. Still in use even after the recent earthquake in China. In 2009 a large earthquake occurred in L'Aquila, Italy. This is a very interesting photo: former Prime Minister Berlusconi and former Japanese Prime Minister Mr. This is because we have to change Prime Ministers every year. They both promised to support my model. I proposed a big reconstruction, a temporary concert hall, since l'Aquilla is very famous for music and all the concert halls were destroyed and the musicians were leaving.

I proposed to the mayor the temporary reconstruction of the auditorium. He said, "As long as you do it with your money, I'm all for it." And I was very lucky. Sir. Berlusconi brought the G8 summit and the former Japanese Prime Minister came and helped us raise the necessary funds. I managed to get 500 thousand euros from the Japanese government to rebuild this temporary auditorium. In 2010, another large earthquake occurred in Haiti, but it is impossible to get there by plane. So I went to Santo Domingo and it takes me 6 hours by car to get to Haiti. In cooperation with students from Santo Domingo, we built 50 shelters with cardboard tubes found in the country.

This is what happened in northern Japan two years ago. After the earthquake and tsunami, people were evacuated to a large gym. But look at this. There is no privacy here. People suffer mentally and physically. There we went to build dividing panels with cardboard tubes with the voluntary work of the students. A very simple shelter created with cardboard tubes and curtains. However, some central authorities do not want us to do something like that. According to them, it would be very difficult to control people. But it was really necessary to do such a thing. There wasn't enough space here to build a standard one-story house like this.

Look at this. The constructions that the government is doing in the temporary houses are so weak, so dense and messy because there is no space for anything and the water drips. I thought we should build a multi-story building because it requires less land and is more comfortable. That's why I proposed to the mayor at the time he was making the dividing panels. I finally met a kind mayor in the town of Onagawa in Miyagi. He asked me to build a 3 story house on the baseball fields. I used shipping containers and also the students helped me build the furniture so that the apartments were comfortable and within the government budget, keeping the square footage of the houses the same but much more comfortable.

Many of those people decide to live there forever. I was very happy to hear this. Now I am working in New Zealand, in Christchurch. About 20 days before the earthquake occurred in Japan, there was also a large earthquake, where many Japanese students lost their lives, and the city's largest cathedral, the symbol of Christchurch, was completely destroyed. I was asked to rebuild the contemporary cathedral. This is what it looks like in the building above. And I would love to continue building monuments loved by people, thank you very much. (Applause) Thank you. (Applause) Thank you very much. (Applause)