Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban has installed his Paper Partition Shelters (PPS) for the victims of the Turkey-Syria earthquake in Mersin and Hatay provinces of Turkey.

The Paper Partition Shelters, entirely made of paper tubes and fabric, have been installed in the evacuation centres - one of them in Yenisehir Indoor Sports Hall in Mersin, and the other within temporary tents as a field hospital in Hatay.

Shigeru Ban's PPS system in Yenisehir Indoor Sports Hall in Mersin. Image © İrem Su Eliaçık, Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook

After meeting with local teams in early March, the acclaimed humanitarian architect Shigeru Ban together with his Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) have installed these temporary shelters in response to the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake. 

The shelters are made up of two materials: paper tubes (as shown above) and fabric curtains. 

Shigeru Ban's PPS system in Yenisehir Indoor Sports Hall in Mersin. Image © İrem Su Eliaçık, Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook

Each shelter can accommodate up to two persons in a ward and can be easily built with three people in five or ten minutes, which are easy to assemble and disassemble. 

Ban founded Voluntary Architects’ Network in 1995 to develop post-disaster aid with easily-accessible materials in the field of constructions. 

The fact that it consists of only two materials that are easy to access in many local areas also requires a low budget.

Shigeru Ban's PPS system in Yenisehir Indoor Sports Hall in Mersin. Image © İrem Su Eliaçık, Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook

Known for humanitarian efforts, the architect works with volunteer students and people to build paper partition systems around the world. 

For this project, the architect collaborated with Yaşar University, Istanbul-based architectural office Emre Arolat Architecture, and Konfida, a local manufacturing company that produces custom-made paper tubes and cores. 

Shigeru Ban's PPS system in Yenisehir Indoor Sports Hall in Mersin. Image © İrem Su Eliaçık, Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook

Ban uses two types of paper tubes, which replace the main structural systems like in buildings, as posts and beams in the PPS system. 

Paper tubes with a larger diameter are used as posts, while secondary paper tubes with small diameters are used as beams.

In order to ensure privacy, the fabrics spilled on the paper tubes are tied together with safety pins and closed. Each unit can be 2 meters or a little more, depending on the number of beds in each ward.

Ban develops a prototype project for the Turkey-Syria earthquake, which is work in progress at Shibaura Institute of Technology. Image via Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook

According to a Facebook post of VAN, Ban is also working on a Paper Log House prototype project for Turkey. 

As can be seen from the photograph above, this prototype is a wooden, easily-moveable house with hipped-gable roofs. The house has six large circular holes on the roof to let the light in.

The main posts that help support the wooden panels are the larger diameter paper tubes. These paper tubes are placed at angles and wooden panels are laid to create the structure of the roof.

A Paper Log House prototype by Shigeru Ban (work in progress). Image via Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook

The floor of the house is raised on a plinth of solid crates. The house has two windows on both sides. 

Ban is currently working on this prototype at Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo, Japan. 

This is not Ban's first post-disaster project with his Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN). Shigeru Ban and VAN installed Paper Partition Shelters for Ukrainian refugees in Poland last year. 

Shigeru Ban's PPS system in Yenisehir Indoor Sports Hall in Mersin. Image © İrem Su Eliaçık, Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook

In May 2022, the architect installed the PPS system at Tegel Airport in Berlin to be used as temporary Ukrainian refugee facility. 

Moreover, 20 units of the PPS system were installed at Vojany Power station in Kosice, Slovakia and 39 PPS units were installed at the assistance center in Bratislava. 

View from a field hospital installed in Hatay by Shigeru Ban and Voluntary Architects’ Network. Image via Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook

View from a field hospital installed in Hatay by Shigeru Ban and Voluntary Architects’ Network. Image via Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook

In 2017, Shigeru Ban, in collaboration with UN-Habitat, signed an agreement to design 20,000 new homes for refugees in the Kalobeyei Refugee Settlement in Kenya.

Ban designed temporary homes for the victims of devastating floods occurred in 2018 in Southern Japan. The architect developed the first Paper Partition System in the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake, known as PPS1.

Shigeru Ban Architects created a separate page to collect donations to support Voluntary Architects’ Network disaster relief project.

Top image: Shigeru Ban's PPS system in Yenisehir Indoor Sports Hall in Mersin. Image © İrem Su Eliaçık, Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook.

> via Voluntary Architects’ Network/Facebook page. 

shelter Shigeru Ban Turkey-Syria earthquake Voluntary Architects’ Network