SELF-MASS DAMPER AT TOKYO SWATCH The Swatch Group's new flagship structure in Tokyo, the Nicolas G. Hayek Center, featured in ArchitectureWeek No. 416, is built with an array of innovative elements, ranging from elevating showrooms and multistory retractable glass exterior walls to moving floors for reducing seismic forces induced in the building. — Published 2009.0401
	TOKYO SWATCH BY SHIGERU BAN The new Swatch flagship store in Tokyo's Ginza district immediately stands out from the surrounding high-end fashion boutiques on this densely packed street. There is no doorway, no visible sign, and no glass storefront. Instead, a towering four-story void in the streetscape seems to signify a civic-scale entry. — Published 2009.0218
	BAN TALKS TO STUDENTS As a noted architectural experimenter, Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was a natural choice as keynote speaker to open the student-run HOPES (Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability) conference for 2006 in April. Now in its 12th year, the conference weaves together a mix of architectural scholars, practitioners, and students to promote a deeper understanding of sustainable design issues. — Published 2006.0510
	HOUSE OF PLASTIC The designs of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma critically engage the materiality of architecture in order to challenge its usual meanings, and in so doing, to thwart the emergence of architecture as an object. As he has shown in many of his projects, Kuma is determined to "dissolve" the materials that he uses, or to choose materials that are less substantial, stating, "If materials are thoroughly particlized, they are transient, like rainbows." — Published 2005.0914
	WTC DESIGN COMPETITION RESULTS On December 18, 2002, citizens and designers of the United States and the world got a glimpse of some new ideas on how the site of New York's World Trade Center could be transformed over the coming decade. On December 18, 2002, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation released a new set of design proposals submitted by some of the world's most talented architects. Perhaps skittish after the poor reception given the last round of proposals, the LMDC simultaneously also launched a campaign to solicit public comment. — Published 2003.0101
	PROPOSALS FOR REBUILDING What should be done with the World Trade Center site in New York? Should it become a memorial park? Or should new buildings go up, and if so, should they rise as high as their predecessors? Or higher? When you ask these questions of over 100 internationally known architects, you can expect to receive a broad range of answers. — Published 2002.0306

Shigeru Ban