via Ted Talks – 13 August 2013

Shigeru Ban is one of Japan’s most accomplished and innovative
architects, known for his use of Western and Eastern influences, themes,
forms and methods of building to design beautiful, ultra-modernist structures, and maybe more so now, his works using different materials for building, particularly paper. Ban’s attraction to the use of paper
comes from its low cost, recyclability and ease of replacement, providing a perfect building material for a sustainable structure with little to no waste.

Ban has spent a portion of his professional career eschewing the idea of architecture for the privileged, and instead began focusing more on architecture for society, with paper as a main element.

In the  TED talk above, Ban speaks about the idea of architecture for the privileged vs architecture for society,and why paper is the perfect material to  create structures that are intended to provide temporary
housing for disaster-torn areas.