Architects, designers and planners on the front line of the fight against coronavirus: today Tedbury and Hong's proposal for a functional handle to prevent the spread of covid-19. An adaptable project, easy to replicate and accessible.
Returning to the scale of object design, with "Concrete answers to covid-19" Isplora has selected the proposal of architects Ivo Tedbury and Freddie Hong for a 3D printed device capable of adapting to fire escape door handles in order to prevent indirect contact through our hands. An accessible and effective idea, suitable for mass production to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Although the main proven cause of contagion is human contact, the virus can survive on surfaces for several hours depending on the type of material involved, as shown by recent studies. This leads us to reflect not only on the materials used by the construction industry and how this will have to adapt to new requirements, but also on the need to modify existing objects and solutions to avoid they also cause infection.
In this perspective, the desire to prevent the spread of covid-19 by human touch lies at the basis of the Hands-Free Architecture project curated by Tedbury and Hong. A handle with an adaptable design that was initially devised to be applied to fire escape doors, but which is now being developed for other types of doors as well. A device applicable to various types of doors, in different circumstances, from public buildings to businesses, up to imagining their use in collective living spaces, such as buildings and condominiums, to allow you to open doors that need to be "pulled" without having to use your hands. Its curved shape, in fact, allows you to pull the door by looping your arm through the device. The project by Tedbury and Hong, architects from the Bartlett School of Architecture, complies with the principles of simplicity, functionality and accessibility.
Specifically, the device was designed for emergency in the emergency, so the first object of interest was identified in fire escape doors. The project, which can be 3D-printed in less than 3 hours, is available to download on the "Hands-Free Architecture" platform. Once produced, it acts as an "adaptor", it is applied to the door handle through inexpensive "cable ties" so that it can be opened using your arm instead of your hand. Together with the print file, the instruction poster that explains how it works can also be downloaded. The platform itself is set up as a collaborative space, a way to trigger debate and cooperation, encouraging other designers to share new ways to respond to the current pandemic situation.
What simple things can we do to temporarily invert' architecture and design norms? - Tedbury.
Here is the link to download the project and learn more about new applications on different types of doors: Hands-Free Architecture. Here are the other projects selected by Isplora for “Concrete answers to covid-19”: The superhospital for the Berlin Airport and Foster+Partners: open-source masks. Furthermore, here is the call to action on the role of architects during and after the pandemic: take part with Isplora to give voice to our community.
