Shigeru Ban is known for his innovative use of plain, common materials such as paper tubes in his award winning architecture. Recently, he has announced an exploration with a new kind of material. He will work with bricks salvaged from collapsed buildings as a construction material for relief shelters to house refugees from Nepal’s recent 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
Low cost and easy to assemble, the shelter will be assembled from 3 x 7 foot modular wooden frames filled with brick rubble reclaimed from building demolished in Nepal’s quake. The roof trusses will be made from paper tubes and covered with plastic sheeting.
Shigeru Ban is known for using plain materials with great success in disaster areas. His prior works include a paper tubing structure for the UNHCR in Rwanda and the Paper Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The first of his relief structures in Nepal will be finished in August 2015