EPPS4 (Emergency Paper Partition System)

In disaster situations it is a common practice to house people with nowhere else to go in large halls and gymnasia. It is not easy to sleep in the middle of a large room surrounded by strangers, and within a few days the temporary residents will begin to construct partition walls out of materials to hand.

EPPS allows halls to be partitioned cheaply ($300 per residential unit), quickly (within less than a week including manufacturing) and easily (without any specialist skills). The system has been under development since the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The supporting frame in the most recent version (Fukusima, 2011) is composed of cardboard tubes of three different dimensions and does not require glue or other additional connectors. The partition screens can be attached to this frame with safety pins or metal clips. The system of 180 centimetre long modules can typically provide a 15m² (2×2 unit) per family, although the system is flexible and the screens can be re-arranged whenever necessary. Changing rooms and temporary offices are also frequently created using this system.