In the mid-1990s, Shigeru Ban saw the practical and social implications of his pioneering Paper Tube Structure (PTS) when he designed emergency housing for Rwandan refugees, and subsequently for the victims of earthquakes in Kobe, and in Istanbul. After his experiences in Kobe, Ban established the Voluntary Architects Network (VAN), an organization aimed at fostering social consciousness within architectural circles.

Ban's primary concerns are structural lightness; spatial and visual transparency; economical means of construction and avoidance of waste; and the dissolution of boundaries between interior and exterior space.

Among his best-known works are the Museum of Paper in Shizuoka, the Curtain Wall House in Itabashi, the Wall-less House in Nagano, and the Japanese Pavilion for EXPO 2000 in Hanover, Germany. Recently, together with Jean de Gastines