Shigeru Ban, the Tokyo-based architect known for his bold use of renewable materials and humanitarian architecture, has been named the 2026 winner of the AIA Gold Medal. The announcement came on December 4, 2025, and marks the highest individual honor the AIA awards, recognizing a career whose work has had a lasting influence on architecture.
Why Shigeru Ban was chosen
The AIA (American Institute of Architects) singled out Ban’s inventive use of modest, renewable materials, especially paper and timber, and his pioneering timber architecture. What began for him as simple paper-tube experiments in exhibition design has grown into a signature structural language used in everything from temporary shelters to permanent buildings.
One of the organization’s highlights was his humanitarian work through the nonprofit arm of his practice, Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN), founded in 1995 after the Kobe earthquake. VAN has delivered more than 50 projects across 23 countries, offering emergency shelters such as paper-log houses and privacy partitions for refugees and disaster-affected communities.
Iconic projects and legacy
Among Ban’s most recognized works is the Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand, a striking cathedral built using recycled cardboard tubes after the 2011 earthquake, showing how inexpensive, recyclable materials can produce elegant and resilient architecture.
At the same time, his firm, Shigeru Ban Architects, has pushed the boundaries of timber architecture, for instance, in the Swatch Omega Campus in Biel, Switzerland. Using massive volumes of Swiss wood, the project demonstrates how sustainably harvested timber can be used to build at scale.
Beyond built work, Ban’s long career as an educator spanning decades at institutions such as Harvard University, Cornell University, and Columbia University has shaped new generations of architects, often involving students directly in VAN humanitarian design projects.
What the AIA Gold Medal means
The AIA Gold Medal, established in 1907 and awarded regularly since 1947, is the organization’s most prestigious honor. It celebrates architects whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on both the theory and practice of architecture.
In selecting Ban, the AIA cited technical innovations and also the social conscience behind his work, a reminder of architecture’s potential to serve people, communities, and the environment.
As the 2026 AIA Gold Medalist, Shigeru Ban will be honored in June 2026 during the AIA’s Conference on Architecture & Design in San Diego. His selection renews attention on sustainable architecture, social-impact design, and the creative potential of materials, reinforcing Ban’s place among the most influential architects of our time.
Image credit: © Shigeru Ban Architects
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