Shigeru Ban, Japanese architect won the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2014

Who: Shigeru Ban
What: Pritzker Architecture Prize 2014
When: 25 March 2014

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban won the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2014. He won the award for his creative and inexpensive designs for disaster relief shelters.
The world's most prestigious architecture award was announced by the Hyatt Foundation on 25 March 2014. The Prize will be awarded to Ban on 13 June 2014 in Amsterdam.
The prize has recognized for the first time an architect for his contribution in the area of housing disaster victims.  Ban will be the seventh Japanese architect to receive the prize.
About Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban, 56, started his involvement in disaster relief structures in Rwanda in 1994. He set up a non- governmental organisation, voluntary architects Network, for taking up construction in Sri Lanka, India, Haiti, Italy and New Zealand in 1995.
Ban’s objective is to build inexpensive, easy-to-construct and dismantle structures. In 2001 Ban participated in Bhuj earthquake relief work. His work also includes museums, offices, auditorium and clubhouses.
Ban’s designs are characterised by experimental approach, inspired freshness, elegant simplicity and apparent effortlessness. The seven-storied wooden office-building in Zurich and the church made of cardboard tubes and colour glasses in Christchurch, New Zealand are example of his work.
About the Pritzker Architecture Prize
The international prize is awarded annually to living architects who significantly contributed to humanity and for excellence in built work. It was instituted by Hyatt Foundation in 1979. It carries 100000 dollar grant, a citation and a bronze medallion.