Curated by Shigeru Ban and Tomoko Sato

Finnish architect Alvar Aalto said that “the Lord created paper for drawing architecture. Everything else is . . . misuse of paper.” So it is perhaps a grand irony that Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, recognized almost exclusively (albeit inadequately) for his innovative use of paper as a building material, is co-organizing (along with Tomoko Sato) the first British retrospective of Aalto’s work. Intended in part as a conversation between the two architects, the exhibition will not only present Aalto’s pioneering Nordic Modern work—which, it has been said, humanized modernism—but will also be a means of drawing out the unlikely similarities between the humanist Aalto and the humanitarian Ban. Along with explorations of twelve of Aalto’s most significant buildings and re-creations of some of their interiors, the show will investigate the ethical ramifications of architecture through the prism of these two kindred spirits’ works.

— Eugenia Bell