Aspen — Nature Framed by Shigeru Ban

In Aspen, the mountains are the real architecture—Shigeru Ban simply knew how to frame them.

Aspen itself is a classic American silver town, laid out on a 19th-century grid. Charming, yes, but it does not give you the immediate immersion in the mountains you might find in the Dolomites or the Alps. The Aspen Art Museum changes that. Ban’s woven wood screen filters the sun without ever competing with the peaks beyond. Moving through the museum feels like passing through a sequence of thresholds, each framing a new slice of nature. Light, porous, and reticent, the structure lets the Rockies set the scale.

What struck me most were not the grand gestures but the interiors—crisp, precise, yet rooted in the surrounding landscape. The cardboard details echo the forested setting, reminding us that the building belongs to the cycle of materials and place.

The real brilliance lies in how Ban choreographs the visitor’s experience. The panoramic elevator and rooftop terrace are not luxuries but democratic devices. They lift anyone—not just skiers or hikers—from the streets of Aspen’s grid into direct communion with the mountains.

This is the architecture that resonates with me: design that amplifies what is already there, connects people to place, and gives meaning to every line and every detail. It’s the approach I bring to my own work, whether a house, a civic building, or a simple retaining wall that shapes a garden into a lived landscape

Global Inspiration Series