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The article highlights the interior design of the MDS Gallery in Tokyo, Japan, designed by architect Sigeru Ban. According to the author, the gallery is a showcase for the architect's experiments with cardboard tubes. Tall tubes of recycled paper form a peristyle on the south side, in front of a curving wall. The author claims the geometry is subtle, the arc set asymmetrically within the rectangle, and shapes a chiaroscuro that changes gradually throughout the day with the light.

Several stellar Japanese architects recently converged on Manhattan, New York, for a symposium at the Japan Society called "Technology and Tradition in Contemporary Japanese Architecture," co-organized by the periodical "Architectural Record." The conference was launched with a lecture by Fumihiko Maki, recently appointed architect for a new United Nations building and a tower at Ground Zero. The focus then passed to younger architects, including Ware Kishi , Kengo Kuma, and the ebullient Jun Aoki. Aoki, Shigeru Ban and Kazuyo Sejima are rising architects. Each has built or is about to build in Manhattan: Aoki's work for Vuitton on Fifth Avenue, Ban's Paper Arch at the Museum of Modern Art in 2000, and Sejima's New Museum envisaged for the Bowery.