Includes index.

Foreword / Paul Hawken -- Why do I love wooden architecture? / Shigeru Ban -- Becoming a timber engineer / Hermann Blumer -- Introduction: why wood? -- Timeline: from paper to wood -- Featured Projects -- Furniture House 1 -- Bamboo Furniture House -- Sagaponac House -- Solid Cedar House -- Villa at Sengokubara -- House of Light and Shadow -- Bookshelf House -- Skolkovo Golf Clubhouse -- Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport -- Art Biotop - Suite Villa -- Shishi-Iwa House No. 2 -- Imai Hospital Daycare Center -- Atsushi Imai Memorial Gymnasium -- Onagawa Station + Yupo'po -- Centre Pompidou-Metz -- GC Oska Building -- Tamadic Nagoya -- Oita Prefectural Art Museum -- Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre -- La Seine Musicale -- House Vision 2 -- Shishi-Iwa House -- Kids Dome Sorai -- Kumamoto Temporary Housing -- Tamedia Headquarters -- Vin Sante + N House -- ZEN Wellness SEINEI -- Farmer's Restaurant -- Aspen Art Museum -- Triangle House -- Kur Park Nagayu -- Shonai Hotel Suiden Terrasse -- YUFUiNFO -- Haesley Nine Bridges Golf Clubhouse -- Haesley Hamlet -- Swatch/Omega Campus -- Project Index -- Unbuilt -- Built -- Current Projects -- Appendix -- Shigeru Ban -- Shigeru Ban Architects.

Despite being one of the oldest building materials, wood is revolutionizing the way we design and construct buildings today. Criteria such as a changing work-life balance and working for a carbon-neutral future allow us to better account for the resources that buildings use and their effect on the natural environment. Studies have also shown the positive impacts of wood on health, wellness, and working toward equity in our local communities as we create beautiful spaces in which to gather, learn, and live. Featured in this book is a comprehensive survey of more than fifty buildings showcasing novel applications for this most ancient of building materials. Museum projects, corporate headquarters, resorts, residences, and temporary shelters for both natural and man-made disasters display the state of the art in wood construction, especially the emerging technology of mass timber, a fireproof composite material. Featured projects include the headquarters of Swatch and Omega, as well as the Aspen Museum, the Pompidou Metz, the Mount Fuji World Heritage Center, La Seine Musicale Performance Hall in Paris, the Oita Prefectural Museum, and the nineteen-story Terrace House in Vancouver, the world?s tallest mass timber building, scheduled for completion in 2022.