A video has been released providing an insight into the design process behind Shigeru Ban’s Aspen Art Museum (AAM), which opened to the public last year.

The film, released by Redsquare Productions, features interviews with Ban and the museum’s director Heidi Zuckerman about the museum’s striking design and its impact in the city.



As Ban’s first permanent museum in America, the backdrop of the 33,000sq ft (10,058sq m) building is the awe-inspiring Ajax Mountains and the design lives up to its surroundings. The facade is draped over the glass in the form of woven wooden cladding, made of resin and paper allowing for durability and fire resistance.

“We didn't want a building that could be done anywhere and we weren’t interested in a sculpture,” says Zuckerman in the video. “We were interested in a building that had interest and integrity and also had proper art spaces. A building that was cognisant of its primary function, which is displaying art. And we talked a lot about having a building that's appropriate to Aspen.”

Ban’s simple glass box structure added three times the exhibition space of its previous home and the cladding was designed to complement the new museum’s mountain setting.

In a recent interview with CLAD, Ban said: “Whatever the project, it is important to respect the characteristics, trademark or tradition of the place. I don’t strive to create beautiful and aesthetic architecture, but these characteristics appear naturally from a design. It is something an architect senses.”

The full interview with Shigeru Ban will feature in the forthcoming issue of CLADmag.