Shigeru Ban has been included in Foreign Policy Magazine's 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2014, dubbing this year's Pritzker Prize Laureate as "architecture's first responder." The annual list recognizes the 100 people whose ideas and actions have had the greatest impact on the outcome of world events, and this year 'disruption' is the buzzword; acknowledging a tumultuous year, the list focuses on the people who, for better or worse, "smashed the world as we know it."
"Ban's commitment to simple materials - most famously, paper and cardboard - is the link between his high-culture commissions and his widely-praised humanitarian projects," says the citation on Foreign Policy Magazine. "Like other Pritzker laureates, Ban has designed spaces for fashion houses and art collections, but with cheap, recyclable materials, he has also designed temporary shelters, schools and churches for natural-disaster survivors in places such as Haiti and the Philippines."
Ban is the third architect to appear in Foreign Policy's top 100 list, which has been compiled eight times since 2005; Rem Koolhaas made the grade in 2005 and 2008, while Zaha Hadid appeared on the 2011 and 2013 lists.
Click here to see Shigeru Ban's citation on Foreign Policy Magazine, or here for the list in full.
H/T Curbed
