In the article 'Paper Palaces', the latest issue of the magazine explores the work of Shigeru Ban, winner of the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize, which encompasses both large-scale projects such as museums, as well as inexpensive and sustainable housing and community structures designed to accommodate displaced people in the wake of humanitarian emergencies.
Alexander Betts explains that given the huge numbers of people currently displaced, and the political difficulties of providing for them in the long term, there is a need for the kind of emergency structures Ban designs:
You have settlements designed for the emergency phase lasting ten to fifteen years...Ban's work with paper and cardboard creates an aesthetic of temporariness. Something that is durable and sustainable but has the appearance of non-permanence might be desirable.
