Shigeru Ban is a famous architect from Japan. He built shelters for people in disaster areas. What do you think he used to build them? Surprisingly, he used paper. Shigeru Ban was looking for eco-friendly building materials. He found that paper tubes worked well. Besides, they were made of recycled paper, so they were cheap. The paper tubes were also much stronger than he expected. So Shigeru Ban tried to build houses out of them. In 1995, an earthquake hit Kobe, Japan. Sixty percent of the buildings were destroyed. Shigeru Ban built shelters out of the paper tubes. The paper tubes were easily transported. So the shelters were built quickly. He also made a paper church. Ten years later, the church was taken apart and sent to Taiwan. There, it was put together again. This was possible because the building was made of paper tubes. Shigeru Ban's use of paper is creative. His paper shelters have helped people around the world.