In case you did not know, a really cool piece of sustainable architecture sold on June 14th at Sotheby’s auction house. I am referring to the 2007 Artek pavilion designed by Shigeru Ban. Ban designed the pavilion for the Scandinavian furniture company that was founded in 1935 by a group that included the architect Alvar Aalto. I first became aware of Shigeru Ban in the spring of 2006 at CaBoom II in Santa Monica California. Ban had designed and constructed the Nomadic Museum for photographer and film-maker, Gregory Colbert. The structure was originally constructed in Venice Italy in 2002 out of commercial shipping containers. The museum was moved to New York city, then to Santa Monica, and finally to Tokyo, Japan. The structure has been the home for Gregory Colbert’s, Ashes and Snow exhibit.

Shigeru Ban’s Artek pavilion went on the block on June 14 and sold for $602,500.00 with the proceeds going to charity. A little less than the estimated $800,000.00 to 1.2 million, but still a nice sale. The pavilion is a ecologically friendly structure. Most of the pavilion is composed of a wood-plastic composite material derived from recycled self-adhesive mailing labels. The structure is made of 21 interlocking modules that can be erected in any number of combinations, depending on space. (It is more than 131 feet long if all the modules are assembled end-to-end.)