fit
together - like in the traditional Japanese carpentry. Ban picked a
sustainable material that not only looks good but smells and feels
good, as well.

The façade is made up
of different shutters - another motive that can
be found in Ban's lesser known works such as the 'Shutter House for
a Photographer' or his
apartments in Manhattan, New York. While the shutters are
definitely contemporary building elements, they also are a
reference to Japan's past: The shoji walls not only are
translucent, they also slide open like shutters.

The Hyatt Hotel
Foundation from Chicago gives its award to a Japanese architect for
the second time in a row: The 'Nobel Price of architecture', as it
is often referred to, was received by Toyo Ito last year. This is a
proof of the world-wide popularity of the ephemeral Japanese
architecture of our time.

The useof wood in multi-storey buildings is an art form almost completely buried a hundred years ago. Reinforced concrete structures became the norm worldwide. In recent years, however, the sustainability debate has brought a renaissance to wood and an interest in large, urban, wooden structures has awakened. Shigeru Ban, well-known for his use of paper and paperboard, has built an office building in Zurich made entirely of wood, or to be more precise 2,000 m3 of Austrian spruce.