Paper partition systems have been installed in the former hypermarket in Chełm and in the interiors of the Art Exhibitions Bureau (BWA) at Wrocław Główny train station to provide a substitute of privacy for refugees from Ukraine. They were constructed by students of three universities under the guidance of the world-renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and researchers from Wrocław University of Science and Technology and Lublin.

- The partitions were made of cardboard poles covered with polyethylene and beams coated with kraft paper made from recycled paper or virgin fibre. We connected them with paper connectors and reinforced tape - says Jerzy Łątka PhD, Eng, Arch from the Faculty of Architecture of Wrocław University of Science and Technology. - Using the thinnest possible paper cylinders, it's an optimal solution that guarantees safety. Also, we hung textile curtains forming "walls" between the partitions.

The system is not easy and quick to assemble, and later it's equally easy to dismantle it. Moreover, it doesn't generate large costs and - as a paper-based solution - it is environmentally friendly.

- But most of all, it allows us to create a substitute for a private room for people who have just lost their homes, destroyed in bombings, or had to flee from them to protect their lives and the lives of their loved ones. These partitions provide at least a little bit of privacy, dignity, and security, which is very important - emphasises Dr Łątka. - I heard from Katarzyna Roj from BWA that the best proof that this solution was needed is that people who put their belongings in their cubicles start crying. They finally feel private and intimate enough to allow themselves to cry. And it's very important for them not to suppress everything they had to face in the last days.

In Chełm, 318 paper units for two, four, and six people were made, accommodating a total of 640 refugees. Materials for several hundred more will also go to Lviv, where partitioned cubicles of the same kind will be created under the supervision of a local architect. Moreover, 60 units were made at the railway station in Wrocław. All of them were built by students of Wrocław University of Science and Technology and Lublin University of Technology, as well as volunteers.

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Japanese architect Shigeru Ban designed the Paper Partition System in 2004 after an earthquake in the Niigata region. It provided a bit of privacy to thousands of people who had lost their homes and were forced to seek shelter in large halls prepared for earthquake victims. Subsequent versions of the cubicles helped people whose homes were destroyed by the 2008 Fukuoka earthquake and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, as well as tsunami in Japan, among other natural disasters. Now people fleeing to Poland from Ukraine can take advantage of this solution.