Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House | Shigeru Ban Architects

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban and led by SBA’s New York office, the construction process involved guiding 39 architecture students on fabricating and assembling the Paper Log House, a 13.5 foot by 13.5-foot enclosure made of paper tubes, wood, and milk crates. The Paper Log House has been deployed to provide temporary housing for victims of disaster across five continents over the last 30 years. Dean Maltz, Managing Partner for SBA’s projects in America, graduated from The Cooper Union with Shigeru Ban. He has seen the foundational ideas and seminal works of the prolific architect take shape. Dean oversaw the process of constructing the Paper Log House from beginning to end, together with The Glass House and The Cooper Union.

Starting at The Cooper Union in Manhattan, The Paper Log House components were fabricated at the school over a period of 5 weeks, then transported by truck to the site in New Canaan. On March 18 and 19, 2024, under strong wind conditions and bitter cold temperatures, 17 students, faculty, and SBA staff assembled the structure in just fifteen hours over the two-day period.

Born out of his desire to not make waste, Shigeru Ban’s experiments with paper tubes began in 1985, and, since then, he has pioneered paper tube construction, elevating the humble material through installations, buildings, and disaster relief projects. Many relief projects, such as the 79-foot-tall Cardboard Cathedral in 2013, have gone on to become permanent fixtures in their communities. Exhibiting Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House at The Glass House creates a unique opportunity to reflect on the permanence of architecture, and how disparate building materials, namely glass, brick and paper offer unexpected possibilities. Ban famously noted, “If a building is loved, it becomes permanent.”

Kirsten Reoch, Executive Director at The Glass House, said, “We are thrilled to present the work of Shigeru Ban Architects at The Glass House on our 75th anniversary. When the Glass House and Brick House were completed in 1949, Philip Johnson was just at the beginning of what would become an expansive campus filled with structures that continually pushed boundaries in design and materials over the course of more than 50 years. The Paper Log House continues this ethos of experimentation and innovation, turning Ban’s creative energy toward the solution of urgent social problems with recyclable and easily available materials.”

Known for his innovative use of paper and wood, architect, educator, and humanitarian Shigeru Ban [b. 1957] originally designed the Paper Log House in 1995 as a shelter for former Vietnamese refugees displaced by the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe, Japan. Designed to be low cost and easy to assemble, Ban utilized paper tubes as the house’s primary building material because they are readily available, economical, and sustainable nearly anywhere in the world.

One of the world’s top architectural destinations, The Glass House welcomes an audience of more than 13,000 visitors every year from Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Japan, Italy, Germany, and Brazil, among others.

In creating buildings that are meaningful to and cared for by their communities, Shigeru Ban’s inventive work alongside The Glass House, challenges preconceived notions of permanence and material strength. Visitors will be able to consider the value of both historic preservation and permanence in glass and brick juxtaposed with temporary, recyclable, and movable structures made of paper and cardboard. In today’s world of mass migration, due to conflict and natural disasters, the public can see a simple solution for aiding those in need of immediate shelter.

This exhibition is made possible in part with support from The Japan Foundation, New York, and Kentucky Owl. A special thanks to Shigeru Ban, Dean Maltz, Vittorio Lovato, and Le Yang of Shigeru Ban Architects (SBA) and the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture students through Professor Samuel Anderson’s Building Technology class Arch135B.

In Da Monsta throughout the 2024 season, a didactic exhibition and time-lapse video documenting the students’ fabrication and assemblage of The Paper Log House will be on view.

Project Facts:

Site: 25 Ft. x 25 Ft. Compacted Gravel
Area: 182.5 Sq. Ft.
Size: Plan – 13’6” x 13’-6”
Height – 11’-7”
Materials: 39 Milk Crates, 156 Paper Tubes, Plywood, Roof Membrane

Visitor Information:
The Glass House Visitor Center + Design Store
199 Elm Street, New Canaan, CT 06840 203.594.9884

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