Shigeru Ban Architects, in collaboration with Voluntary Architects’ Network, has developed an improved version of the temporary housing developed to help those affected by the recent Turkey-Syria earthquake. The new prototype represents an upgrade of the paper tube system deployed in northwestern Turkey after the 1999 earthquake. This new version takes into consideration matters of efficiency and the need to minimize construction time on site.
This new system uses wooden panels to build the walls between the paper tube columns placed at every 1.2 meters. This enables a shorter construction time. The foundation is composed of beer crates filled with sandbags, while the roof is made of paper tube frames and plywood decking. Large holes are cut out of the plywood to ensure safety during construction in order to allow people to work through the hole instead of needing to climb on top of the roof. As a response to the cold climate, adequate insulation is added to the floor, walls, and roof.
The final structure is planned to measure 3.6m by 6 meters in plan. The team has assembled a smaller prototype of the temporary housing solution, measuring 3.6m by 3.6m, in Tokyo, with plans to deploy the system in Turkey. Shigeru Ban has also provided his Paper Partition System (PPS) to quickly transform existing buildings into emergency evacuation centers to house the victims of the earthquake. The system consists of a framework of eight individual cardboard tubes with large, drilled holes at the ends, connected by smaller tubes and fabric draping onto the structure to ensure privacy.
Shigeru Ban developed the first paper shelters in 1994 to help the people displaced by the genocide in Rwanda. In 1995, the architect founded the Voluntary Architects’ Network to coordinate humanitarian works and promote disaster relief efforts worldwide. For over three decades, the company, led by the 2014 Pritzker Prize Laureate, has continued to deploy high-quality, low-cost shelters for the victims of disasters across the world.
The same system was assembled near the border of Ukraine’s neighboring countries to help the Ukrainian refugees displaced by the war. Since March 2022, PPS has been installed in Poland, Slovakia, France, and Ukraine by Shigeru Ban Architects and VAN, collaborating with local architects and volunteer students. Emergency shelters have also been set in place in various cities around Ukraine, with the help of architects Mykhailo Schevchenko, Oleksandr Anisimov, and Oleg Drozdov, to provide emergency housing for those internally displaced.
