Shigeru Ban is an excellent Japanese architect and ambassador of the New European Bauhaus high-level roundtable. From 6–9 September 2022 he will address participants of the Woodrise 2022 conference in Portorož, Slovenia. It is one of the world’s most important conferences in modern sustainable construction, organized by InnoRenew CoE and the University of Primorska.

Woodrise 2022 will host international multistorey timber construction experts on the Slovenian coast to present the sector’s latest architectural and engineering developments. Among the keynote speakers will be also Shigeru Ban, world renowned architect from Japan and the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which is the profession’s highest award. He is known for his innovative work with paper, mostly recycled cardboard, which he uses to design fast and effective solutions for housing of natural disaster’s victims.

Shigeru Ban’s selected works include the museum of modern and contemporary art Centre Pompidou-Metz in Metz, France; Aspen Art Museum, USA; Japanese pavilion at the world exhibition Expo 2000 and Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre in Japan. He received several awards and recognitions for his work, and at the Woodrise 2022 he will present some of them and few humanitarian activities. In 1985 he founded Shigeru Ban Architects, and in 1995, he became a consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and established the Voluntary Architects’ Network to support disaster relief. He is dedicated to humanitarian efforts around the world, for example in 2015 je started with a project of home renovations for the victims of the earthquake in Nepal.

Other speakers at Woodrise 2022 will discuss the renovation, rehabilitation and restoration of existing buildings using timber construction technologies. Attendees will have the opportunity to discover the 10-storey timber upgrade of an existing 6-storey building in Australia, the complete replacement of the interior of an older 5-storey masonry hotel in Portugal with a modern timber structure, the proper refurbishment of the timber load-bearing elements of cultural heritage buildings, and many other outstanding achievements in the field of sustainable renovation of the building stock. At the same time teams of research projects in wood construction, such as DynaTTB, ClickDesign, Basajun and others, will organize workshops on seismic, fire and other topics, giving to participants a chance to learn more in detailed about the latest developments on key properties of high-performance timber construction.

Two days will be dedicated also to technical and business tours of the construction and wood processing industry in Slovenia and the surrounding region. Participants have time until 24 June 2022 to register and visit Venice, Munich or Vienna to explore forestry, engineered wood products, advanced manufacturing technology and machinery.

Please visit the conference website for registration and more information about the program.

Woodrise 2022 will be held under the honorable patronage of the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor.