Shigeru Ban Reveals Enhanced Portable Shelters in the Aftermath of Turkey-Syria Disaster

In response to the recent earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, Shigeru Ban Architects, in cooperation with the Voluntary Architects’ Network, designed an upgraded version of the portable shelters temporary housing initiative. This prototype is an improvement over the paper tube system in northwest Turkey following the 1999 earthquake. The latest update prioritizes productivity and shortens the time workers spend building.

©Shigeru Ban Architects

The New Portable Shelters

Wooden panels form the walls of the new portable shelters, separated by paper tube supports every 1.2 meters. This allows for a reduction in building time. Using beer boxes and sandbags as the base, the roof is constructed with paper tube frames and plywood sheathing.

Significant gaps have been drilled out of the plywood for building safety so that workers can enter it and do their jobs from below rather than having to climb onto the roof. Furthermore, insulating the ceiling, walls, and floor was necessary to combat the chilly weather.

©Shigeru Ban Architects

The finished design calls for a floor plan size of 3.6m by 6m. The group of architects has put together a 3.6m by 3.6m model of the interim lodging option in Tokyo and intends to use it in Turkey. Shigeru Ban has also donated his Paper Partition System (PPS), which can rapidly convert unused spaces into shelters for natural disaster fatalities.

The framework for the system comprises eight separate cardboard tubing with massive, perforated openings at the ends, all of which are linked to one another via thinner tubes, with fabric wrapping over the structure for added secrecy.

©Shigeru Ban Architects

In 1994, in response to the Rwandan slaughtering, Shigeru Ban created the first paper portable helters to aid the homeless population. The architect established the Voluntary Architects’ Network in 1995 to facilitate communication between architects working in crisis zones and to raise funds for charitable initiatives. The company, founded by the winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2014, has been supplying emergency shelters to people affected by catastrophic events around the globe for over 30 years.

©Shigeru Ban Architects

Portable shelters with identical layouts were set up near the borders of Ukraine’s nearby nations to aid Ukrainians who had fled the conflict. Shigeru Ban Architects and VAN, along with native architects and dedicated students, have been installing PPS in Poland, Slovakia, France, and Ukraine since March 2022. Shelters for the temporarily unsettled people have been established in several Ukrainian towns thanks to the efforts of architects Mykhailo Schevchenko, Oleksandr Anisimov, and Oleg Drozdov.