Shigeru Ban and the Voluntary Architects’ Network have shared news of their delivery of several Paper Log House prototypes in Morocco in response to the devastating 6.8 magnitude earthquake that displaced over 30,000 people recently, according to disaster response statistics assembled by the UN.

This is the third such deployment in the past four months and follows Ban’s contribution to the Turkish response effort after the February earthquake that destroyed more than 160,000 structures there and in Syria. The National Architecture School of Marrakech is helping Ban coordinate the delivery of the shelters, which were first used following the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan. 

The structures used this year in Turkey offer slightly more permanent accommodations than past prototypes and can be constructed in just three days, with another ten or so days required for pre-installation preparation. 

Ban’s presence is a reminder that the global architecture community can play an important part in creating a more stable environment for victims in places that could take years to rebuild. Morocco is attempting to coordinate help for a region whose population numbers approximately 4.2 million. Around 60,000 or more homes have been damaged, with some villages being wiped out entirely and most others feeling the effects of Rabat's structural neglect that's made a general lack of infrastructure and durable homes even more dangerous to health and human safety.

The firm's nonprofit VAN arm has also been helping to house Ukrainian refugees in Poland and worked this summer to help victims of May's Ishikawa earthquake recover in Japan. 

A list of other aid organizations and resources working with the Moroccan government can be found here.