Japanese architect Shigeru Ban likes to test the limits of materials. The Pritzker Prize–winner is perhaps best known for his work with cardboard tubes, using them to quickly and inventively shelter victims of disasters. But wood is another favorite. With timber serving as the primary structural material, he has created wildly sculptural buildings, such as the Centre Pomipidou’s branch in Metz, France, with a swoopy, tentlike wood gridshell roof said to be inspired by woven bamboo hats. He has also designed more sedate wood buildings, including a headquarters for the Swiss media company Tamedia in Zurich—a glass curtain wall–enclosed box that has a meticulously detailed timber post-and-beam framed structure exposed on the interior.