The innovative Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, he of the paper chairs and buildings, is currently working on the construction of a pavilion for the Finnish furniture company Artek. The structure will be used as a platform to exhibit Artek's new 2007 furniture collection alongside their Alvar Aalto classics at this year's Milan Furniture Fair. Design Boom recently interviewed Shigeru Ban about his collaboration with the forestry company UPM and their developoment of a new wood plastic composite material to be used in the construction of this project. The composite is said to use surplus waste material from UPM's production cycle and recycled plastic to create a lightweight material which can be recycled back into the production process after use. Shigeru says, "I'm very interested in using weak materials. I believe that the material doesn't need to be strong to be used to build a strong structure. The strength of the structure has nothing to do with the strength of the material. We can make a building which withstands an earthquake made of paper, as I did. So the structural strength of the building has nothing to do with the strength of the material."

"Actually I brought this material (UPM), when I received it, back with me to Japan to test it. I have my own testing engineer and we found out that the fibre is not very long, so it can break very easy. It's definitely not an elastic, strong material, but this doesn't matter. We just calculated and designed the structure according to the strength we found out by testing. So I have to say that this material meets the structural strength we need to build the structure of the pavilion." Watch the video clips, see more pavilion images and read the full interview here. The Artek Pavilion will be located in the Triennale Museum Park during the Milan’s Furniture Fair, April 18-23, 2007. Via Design Boom ::Shigeru Ban

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