Photo/Illutration Partitions set up in Kanagawa Prefecture’s Budokan martial arts gym in Yokohama on April 20 (Provided by Shigeru Ban Architects)

YOKOHAMA--A world-renowned architect is helping bring down the curtain on possible infections among people who used to stay at internet cafes, a potential hotspot amid the new coronavirus outbreak.

Shigeru Ban, winner of the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize, often called the Nobel Prize of architecture, has been providing partitions made of paper-tube frames and curtains at a local shelter to offer protection against droplet infections.

“I’m worried that cluster infections might occur at evacuation centers if a natural disaster hits under the current circumstances,” said Ban, 62, whose works include the Pompidou Center museum in northeastern France.

From April 11, Kanagawa Prefecture’s Budokan martial arts gym started accommodating people who had been staying at internet cafes after numerous outlets closed temporarily at the prefecture's request to stop the further spread of the virus.

Several dozens of people are now using the facility, located in Yokohama’s Kohoku Ward, every day.

Ban, who has built temporary housing for disaster-hit areas around the globe, developed the partitions, which were originally made to offer privacy for those who had fled to evacuation centers due to an earthquake or typhoon.

Partitions measuring about 2 meters in length, width and height are being set up 2 or more meters apart from each other at a judo hall and a kendo dojo in the facility.

A nonprofit organization Ban heads provided the simple structures, which utilize paper-tube frames that look like toilet paper cores, and fabric curtains.

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, Ban signed an agreement with Kanagawa Prefecture to provide partitions in the event of a disaster.

After an expert on virus infections told him the partitions would be effective in preventing droplet infections, Ban proposed using them as a precaution against virus infections to the prefectural government.

“I’ve been thinking how I can offer support as the virus continues to spread by making the most of what I’ve been working on,” Ban said.

More than 80 partitions have been assembled so far at the Budokan gym.