The 2007 - 8 Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment, an annual invited lecture by an international figure whose work has significant implications for understanding and reconceiving the relationship between architecture and the environment, will be delivered by Shigeru Ban. The annual lecture was created in honor of long-time League trustee Ulrich Franzen.

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban’s innovative work tests the limits of structure and form. Often based on elements derived from traditional Japanese architecture, his firm’s designs are ecologically sensitive and flexibly programmed, from quickly constructed temporary paper structures to modular, reconfigurable galleries and pavilions to permanent urban structures. Recent and current work includes the Nomadic Museum; the Seikei Library; Papertainer Museum, Seoul; Nicolas G. Hayek Center, Tokyo; the Metal Shutter Houses; and the Pompidou Center – Metz.

Shigeru Ban received his Bachelor of Architecture from Cooper Union in 1984. In 1985, Ban established Shigeru Ban Architects in Tokyo. Over the years, the firm has won many awards, including AIA Honor awards, World Architecture Awards, the Grande Medaille France Academie d’architecture, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. Currently, he is Professor at Keio University. In 2004, he was named an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.