The war in Ukraine continues, and the number of refugees has risen to 5million, according to the U.N. Renowned for his involvement in humanitarian aid, Shigeru Ban and the Voluntary Architects' Network have been deploying a paper partition system (PPS) for emergency shelters in Ukraine and neighbouring countries, designed to provide some privacy to the Ukrainian refugees. Since early March, PPS has been installed in Poland, Slovakia, France, and Ukraine by Shigeru Ban Architects and VAN, collaborating with local architects and volunteer students.
The Paper Partition System (PPS) consists of a framework of eight individual carboard tubes with large drilled holes at the ends, connected by smaller tubes and fabric draping onto the structure to ensure privacy. In early March, a prototype of the structure with an individual unit of 2.3 by 2 metres was first assembled at the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, after which 60 units were installed at Wroclaw Main Railway Station by volunteer students led by Agata Jasiolek. At the same time, 319 PPS units were installed inside a former supermarket near the Polish-Ukrainian border by students led by Weronika Abramczyk from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology.
In Poland, VAN further collaborates with a volunteer group led by Hubert Trammer, a member of the New European Bauhaus and Jerzy Latka. In France, the installation of PPS in two gymnasiums in Paris was conducted by the staff of Shigeru Ban Architects Europe and the students from École Nationale supérieure d'architecture de Versailles. Another 39 units were installed within an assistance centre in Bratislava in collaboration with Ľubica Šimkovicová, president of the Passive House Institute Slovakia.
As numerous people have also been displaced internally, emergency shelters have been set in place in various cities around Ukraine. In Lviv, the paper partition system was installed at the Galchyna Gymnasium, a veterinary university in Lviv, with the help of architects Mykhailo Schevchenko, Oleksandr Anisimov and Oleg Drozdov. All the interventions have been supported through donations and the involvement of private companies.
Shigeru Ban first developed paper shelters in 1994 to help people displaced by the genocide in Rwanda, and in 1995, the architect founded the Voluntary Architects Network to promote disaster relief efforts. The PPS system has been previously used successfully in disaster relief efforts after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the Hokkaido Earthquake in 2018, and the torrential rain in southern Kyushu in 2020.
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