Shigeru Ban wins the 35th Praemium Imperiale Award in Architecture

Shigeru Ban has been announced as the 35th official Laureate of the Praemium Imperiale Award. The 67-year-old Tokyo-born Ban follows Francis Kéré as the next Architecture category winner after a busy two-year period that has seen multiple deployments of his proprietary emergency shelters through the Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) and completed projects for Tiffany & Co. and the Toyota City Museum, among other superlatives.

Ban, who founded his own eponymous practice in Japan 1985, was cited heavily for his humanitarian work in addition to the Centre Pompidou-Metz (2010), La seine musicale (2017), and the Swatch Omega (2019). The award adds to his 2014 Pritzker Prize win. Ban studied at The Cooper Union and has also won the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, Mainich Art Prize, and the Asahi Prize within the past twenty years. 

"Shigeru Ban has revolutionized architecture with his innovative use of materials and distinctive designs. He creates monumental, uplifting buildings while maintaining a passionate sense of the role of the architect in an unstable world," the Praemium Imperiale citation reads. "Throughout his career, Ban has used a unique structural system for projects large and small, from civic buildings to emergency shelters. At the heart of his work is his determination that architecture should create something positive for society."

The other Praemium Imperiale Laureates for 2024 were Sophie Calle (Painting), Doris Salcedo (Sculpture), Ang Lee (Theater/Film), and Maria João Pires (Music).