Paper and cardbo's toolbox for drawings and models of buildings, but for Japanese architect Shigeru Ban they are good enough to make the real thing. The 56-year-old, who has built a reputation over the past 30 years for crafting improbable structures around the world - from housing to art galleries and cathedrals - many from humble cardboard tubes, has been named as the winner of the 2014 Pritzker prize, the highest accolade in the industry. "When you finish a roll of tracing paper or fax paper, there are always paper tubes left over," he said. "They were so strong and so nice, so I kept them. Then I went to the factory where they made them, and I saw they could make any length and any diameter." Beginning with temporary exhibition designs, his experiments with cardboard engineering soon expanded in scope, from undulating grid-shell pavilions to the geodesic frame of his temporary office in Paris. Strapped limpet-like to the roof of the Pompidou Centre, this cardboard-framed tunnel was his base for designing the gallery's outpost in Metz, completed in 2010, itself conceived as a rippling rattan hat of bamboo and oiled paper. But it is for his humanitarian work, as much as for his houses and museums, that Ban caught the Pritzker jury's eye. "He is a force of nature," said the jury chairman, Lord Palumbo, "which is entirely appropriate in the light of his voluntary work for the homeless and dispossessed in areas devastated by natural disasters." In 1994, prompted by the displacement of millions by the Rwandan civil war, Ban proposed paper-tube shelters to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, followed a year later by paper log cabins after the Kobe earthquake, with foundations made of sand-filled beer crates and walls of vertical cardboard tubes. After founding the Voluntary Architects' Network in 1995, he has tackled disaster relief in Turkey, India, China and Haiti, most recently erecting a magnificent cardboard cathedral after the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand , rising in an elegant A-frame next to the ruins of George Gilbert Scott's stone building. Outside Ban's humanitarian work, his projects include the Centre Pompidou-Metz, a modern art museum in France featuring a curved roof made of timber which is inspired by a Chinese hat. He also designed Swiss media firm Tamedia's seven-store headquarters, built with an interlocking wooden frame that has no metal joints. Ban is the seventh Japanese architect to receive the prize since it was established in 1979, following Kenzo Tange in 1987, Fumihiko Maki in 1993, Tadao Ando in 1995, the team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in 2010, and Toyo Ito last year.

Japanese architect Toyo Ito, whose buildings have been praised for their fluid beauty and balance between the physical and virtual worlds, has won the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Along with Tadao Ando, the 1995 Pritzker laureate, the 71-year-old Ito is the dean of Japanese architecture, though with his mop of black hair he looks many years younger. He is best known for his 2001 Sendai Mediatheque, a seven-story glass box of a building that was dramatically shaken, though only lightly damaged, by the Tohoku earthquake two years ago. Some of Ito's notable creations include the curvaceous Municipal Funeral Hall in Gifu, Japan; the arch-filled Tama Art University Library in suburban Tokyo; the spiral White O residence in Marbella, Chile; his stadium for the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and the angular 2002 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London. Like much of his work, it distills a series of complex technical breakthroughs into a spare, even-keeled finished product. The Mediatheque's structural and electrical systems are bundled inside 13 vertical tubes, leaving library and exhibition spaces open and accessible from all sides and visible from the street through floor-to-ceiling glass. Ito has designed museums, stadiums, houses and commercial buildings across Japan. His largest and most ambitious project to date, the 58 thousand square meters Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, is under construction in Taiwan and due to open next year. Ito began his career at Kiyonori Kikutake & Associates after he graduated from Tokyo University in 1965. He founded his own architecture firm in 1971. He has also been a teacher and mentor to many Japanese architects. Two former associates in his office, Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, who run the firm SANAA, were the joint Pritzker winners in 2010. Ito will receive a US$ 100 thousand grant and a bronze medallion at the formal Pritzker ceremony May 29 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. The 71-year-old architect joins such masters as Frank Gehry, I.M. Pei, Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano and Wang Su, the first Chinese architect who wins the Pritzker Prize , in receiving the honor that's been called architecture's Nobel Prize. Ito, the sixth Japanese architect to receive the prize, was recognized for the libraries, houses, theaters, offices and other buildings he has designed in Japan and beyond.

On January 30 during the "2nd Annual Emerging Airports Conference and Exhibition" held in Dubai the results of votes for over 20 nominations were announced. As reported the "Zvartnots International Airport's" official website, the nominations were different: "Best Emerging Airport of the World", "Best Emerging Airport of Middle East", Best Emerging Airport Europe", etc. According to the results for the nomination "Best Emerging Airport of Russia, CIS & Baltic States" Yerevan "Zvartnots International Airport" is the best in CIS. The new terminal of "Zvartnots" airport put into operation on September 16, in the framework of events dated to the 20th anniversary of Armenia's independence. Zvartnots International Airport also was nominated by the company Arabian Reach, Dubai for "EMAA" (Emerging Markets Airports Award). Besides "Zvartnots" four airports of CIS countries, namely: "Domodedovo" and "Sheremetevo" airports of Moscow, "Pulkovo" airport of St. Petersburg, "Manas" airport of Bishkek were nominated, as well. Voting lasted for more than a month. During the award ceremony the award was received by the General Manager of "Armenia International Airports" CJSC Marcelo Wende.

On November 3, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat announced the winner of its annual "Best Tall Building Worldwide 2011". KfW Westarkade (Frankfurt, Germany) by Sauerbruch Hutton architects named as the 2011 Overall "Best Tall Building Worldwide" during 10th Annual Awards Ceremony, reported CTBUH.rog. The architects at Sauerbruch Hutton, Germany have built the world's most energy efficient glass tower using "pressure ring facade" in 2010. The architecture incorporated the facade design developed in 1990s which managed excess sunlight in glass towers while building the 15 story glass tower in Frankfurt, Germany. The design includes a pressure ring facade, the first of its kind, reducing the effects of changes in the pressure around the building and enhancing natural ventilation. Complex and highly sophisticated computer controlled flaps in the outer facade open and close and equalize the pressure throughout. The inner windows can be opened and strong winds entering the building are prevented. The building's control system constantly gets a feedback from a rooftop weather station and from 40 sensors installed all around the building which measure pressure, temperature and sunlight. The system also has geothermal heat exchangers, heat capturing modules from basement data center and heat recovered from vented air. All this reduces the tower's primary energy demand to less than 100 Kwh of energy per square meter per year. It is approximately half of the current European average, and one third of the American. The need for the mechanical ventilation will be almost eliminated in fall and spring as air from open windows will be available. The unwanted summer heat is rejected by the Venetian blind installed horizontally. On the other side, pane of glass over the blinds and provided with ventilation at both top and bottom protects blinds from strong winds. This posed a major problem that when windows were opened, pressure difference created around the tower sent drafts across the floor which flew everything.

Spanish practice Cloud 9's Media-ICT office scheme in Barcelona has been named as the "World Building of the Year" at the 2011 World Architectural Festival (WAF), reported Architect journal. The building is 44m x 44m x 37.82m meters high, with 16 thousand square meter of commercial space above ground and 7.1 thousand square meter below surface, with capacity for 200 car parking spaces. The victorious scheme was selected from 16 finalists to win the highest accolade in global architecture and is the first win for the host city. The facade is made of south-facing, inflatable ETFE cushions which act to a sunscreen in summer and can opening in winter to gain solar energy. The scheme's upper floors are available for big companies, while the second and third floor have small spaces for emergent companies and the first floor with the auditorium offers a course program open to all the city residents. Meanwhile the overall "Future Project of the Year" award went to Hong Kong-based "Integrated Design Associates" for its Hanimaadaoo International Airport, Maldives. The new airport, designated as the Country's second international gateway, is intended for an island with very limited land mass. Frank Gehry's iconic 76-story Beekman Tower at 8 Spruce Street, New York won the " Structural Project of the Year 2011" with the prize going to engineer WSP Cantor Seinuk.