Architect's Pritzker prize puts new shine on his project

[NEW YORK] When he won the Pritzker Prize on March 24, Japanese architect Shigeru Ban had a very busy day. As the 37th winner of architecture's biggest prize - the profession's Nobel - Mr Ban made all the major papers, had appearances on CNN and NPR, and even sat down with Charlie Rose.

The day after Mr Ban won the Pritzker, Douglas Elliman broker Holly Parker had a very busy day, too. "The phone started ringing, and it just hasn't stopped," said Ms Parker, who, thanks to Mr Ban, has won a prize of her own.

Since October 2012, she has been trying to sell a three-bedroom condominium inside the Metal Shutter Houses in Manhattan, Mr Ban's only completed project in New York. The US$7 million duplex had Mr Ban, one of the world's best known architects, behind it, even before he won the Pritzker. The honour is not only for his distinctive homes across Japan and a branch of the Pompidou in Metz, France, but also for disaster housing utilising unusual materials such as cardboard tubes and shipping containers.