We are pleased to announce Shigeru Ban: Projects in Progress, the second solo exhibition of architect Shigeru Ban to be held at TOTO GALLERY·MA. The first was held 18 years ago in 1999.

In addition to designing buildings such as the Centre Pompidou-Metz (2010, France) and Oita Prefectural Art Museum OPAM (2014, Japan), Ban has also continued to propose designs for shelters and temporary housing designed using structural paper tubes to support disaster relief efforts in regions around the world. In 2014, he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize—also known as the "Nobel Prize of Architecture"—in recognition of the broad range of his architectural activities.

In this exhibition, we will introduce Ban's design ideas and initiatives through showing the design and construction processes of his most recent projects from around the world. Today, the architect, who has come to be known for his attempts to make buildings using paper tubes—a cheap material that can be easily dismantled, assembled, and recycled—and his efforts to support disaster relief activities worldwide, has found a renewed interest in the characteristics and possibilities of wood, and he has been attempting to create large-scale projects by using the material in diverse forms.

Of particular note among them is the La Seine Musicale, a music complex whose centerpiece is a 1,200-seat hall dedicated to classical music. The project is slated to open on Seguin Island near Paris in 2017, and when completed, it will be the largest of Ban's career. Inspired by a sailing ship, the complex incorporates rotating solar panels that follow the sun and a circular concert hall nested in an enormous wooden basket composed by a hexagonal grid. The giant cruise-liner-like complex on the Seine is anticipated to become Paris' new center of culture. The exhibition will feature an approximately four-meter-long sectional model of the project and time-lapse videos showing its complete construction process that promise to draw viewers into Ban's world of architecture.

The exhibition will also feature numerous ongoing projects that will be shown for the first time through an immersive presentation of models, mockups, and videos.
Visitors will be exposed to the potential of the unconventional environments and comfort that the dynamic forms of Ban's large-span timber roofs and wall surfaces offer.