Archinect - News

60 Minutes spotlights the importance of indoor air quality

2023-10-31T14:50:00-04:00

For the Harvard professor, founder of the university's Healthy Buildings Program, our building design and public health officials have ignored indoor air systems for too long – that is, until the COVID pandemic hit. [...] "If you look at the way we design and operate buildings –and I mean offices, schools, local coffee shop[s] – we haven't designed for health," Allen said. "We have bare minimum standards."

Professor Joe Allen, who also does consultation work for developers, recently advised on the Amazon ‘HQ2’ project in Virginia from NBBJ. He and his colleagues at Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program center their work around six research areas (Homes, Schools, Business, Materials, Climate, and Infectious Diseases), noting that humans spend, on average, 90% of their lives indoors. The project leverages studies and empirical evidence that have roots in 19th-century public health design and is now being aided by research into the effects of ventilation on the spread of COVID-19.

"All else equal, which building are you gonna go to? You have your choice right now: This building that put in healthy building controls, or this building that's designed the way we've always designed buildings, and is prone to being a sick building?" Allen told 60 Minutes, speaking about post-pandemic market standards.

A list of tools and resources compiled for designers by the program can be found here.

...

Guangzhou to build huge quarantine facility in response to Delta variant

2021-07-02T17:58:00-04:00

The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is planning to build a 250,000-square-meter quarantine complex in response to the growing threat of highly transmissible Covid-19 mutations such as the Delta variant.

The announcement was made by Zhong Nanshan, one of China’s top epidemiologists, who played a leading role in tackling the SARS outbreak in 2003. According to Zhong, the complex would contain 5,000 isolated spaces for both international travelers and local residents from high-risk areas. According to The South China Morning Post, Zhong believes the quarantine complex is necessary as simply using hotels as quarantine sites would not be enough to halt the spread of the virus due to how much more transmissible the Delta variant is compared to previous ones.

“In the long term, Guangzhou and Shenzhen must build these kinds of facilities. Otherwise when there are lots of cases in the future and we have to quarantine them in hotels, it will affect the economy and we cannot isolate them ...

India's controversial parliament redesign draws increased criticism as country battles new Covid wave

2021-04-27T13:36:00-04:00

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rebuilding part of New Delhi, but the mammoth undertaking is drawing fire [...] The massive project — which local media have estimated could cost about 200 billion rupees ($2.7 billion) — has grown more controversial as India’s coronavirus cases have exploded. On social media, some questioned the need for spending on new government structures at a time when the nation is dealing with severe fallouts from the pandemic.

As India struggles to contain a new devastating wave of Covid-19 outbreaks throughout the country, opposition is further growing to Prime Minister Modi's controversial redesign plan of the historic Central Vista in the capital Delhi which will include a new parliament building and several government offices. The criticism centers around the project's lack of public consultation and transparency as well as its enormous price tag at a time when the country is facing economic challenges due to the ongoing pandemic.

The undertaking officially launched in December 2020 but was briefly halted (and subsequently approved) by India's Supreme Court shortly after.

Indian firm HCP Design, Planning and Management Ltd. is in charge of the Central Vista urban master plan and architectural design of the parliament building.

Building the infrastructure of mass Covid-19 vaccination

2021-01-26T14:45:00-05:00

More than 50 countries are racing to vaccinate their populations to fend off the rising death toll of a third wave of infections. To supplement the existing network of hospitals, medical clinics, pharmacies and other healthcare facilities, many are establishing mass vaccination sites capable of processing crowds — often sports arenas, convention centers and stadiums, but also parking lots and deserted shopping malls.

Bloomberg CityLab takes a look at how large sports, cultural, and civic facilities are being converted into mass vaccination sites in cities around the world.

Thoughts on better post-pandemic cities

2021-01-25T17:58:00-05:00

The pandemic has underlined how broken the UK’s model for urban development is. [...] It is hard to see now amid the depression and anger, but the pandemic did briefly show cities acting on the basis of general human need: rough sleepers being housed, mutual aid groups being set up, evictions being suspended. Yet the possibility of any long-term change is rapidly being lost.

Tribune culture editor Owen Hatherly's new housing opinion piece for The Guardian.

UK Architects report exploitive work practices amid lockdown

2020-10-15T13:00:00-04:00

The Guardian's Oliver Wainwright sheds light on the incredible exploitive workplace abuses happening in the UK in a recent piece titled Furlough fraud, snooping and firings: architects speak out over lockdown exploitation. From never-ending work days, to secret webcam recordings, and even bizarre firings, people have been experiencing troubling behavior from employers, leading many to report instances to RIBA and the United Voices of the World - Section of Architectural Workers (UVW-SAW).

In one instance, Wainwright reports on a woman who discovered her boss had been monitoring her webcam and secretly recording her client meetings. "I only realized I was being monitored when something I said was later quoted back to me in a team meeting," she says as reported by Wainwright. "And another recording of me was used in a presentation. It was completely insane. It felt like being back at school, with added hyper-surveillance."

Other case studies include employers who have signed up for th...

Gómez Platero unveils design for world's first large-scale memorial to the victims of COVID-19

2020-08-21T11:27:00-04:00

Urban design and architectural practice Gómez Platero had unveiled designs for the world's first large-scale memorial to the victims of COVID-19, due to reside on the edge of a section of urban waterfront in Uruguay. Dubbed the "World Memorial to the Pandemic,"the monument will be an environmentally conscious construction that uses pre-fabrication and on-site assembly to minimize the impact on the environment.

The massive circular structure will span 40 meters in diameter and hold an open center void that will stretch 10 meters in diameter. The memorial will be able to welcome up to 300 visitors while adhering to current social distancing guidelines, allowing the community safe moments of shared grief and solidarity.

"Architecture is a powerful tool to transform the world," said Architect Gómez Platero in a statement. "It is, above all, a collective and historical reality, made of small fragments which survive over time and become culture. It is a way to show who we are on this pl...

Carlo Ratti Associati complete COVID-19 medical pod prototype

2020-04-21T11:51:00-04:00

Carlo Ratti Associati has completed and installed the first unit of CURA in Turin, Northern Italy. Previously reported on Archinect, we reported on the project, which stands for "Connected Unites for Respiratory Ailments" was spearheaded by Carlo Ratti Associati and Italian architect Italo Rota. The concept utilized shipping containers to develop a modular system of pods for treating COVID-19 patients. Met with confusion, some were uncertain of the feasibility of the proposal, but now the first steps have become a reality.

The plug-in Intensive-Care Pods converted from shipping containers have come to fruition in just four weeks following their initial launch. The speed of the design and production effort come as a result of an international task force that, in addition to designers from Carlo Ratti Associati with Italo Rato, include engineers at Jacobs and health technology company Philips for medical equipment supply.

Initial concept renderings.

With the goal to improve the efficie...

Small construction firms included in paycheck protection loan program after all

2020-04-14T11:23:00-04:00

New guidance from the Treasury Department appears to allow any U.S. firms with 500 or fewer employees to qualify for the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program regardless of revenue, according to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). The initiative was created as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill enacted late last month.

According to Construction Dive, President Donald Trump's administration released the new guidance April 7th after the AGC raised concerns that many small construction firms appeared to be excluded from the initially drafted program.

Construction in residential areas could face new restrictions in L.A.

2020-04-13T11:25:00-04:00

With construction deemed essential during the citywide "Safer at Home," order, work has continued at many building sites across Los Angeles - though with new regulations to account for the outbreak of coronavirus... Faced with a deluge of complaints about noise and vibration from Angelenos sheltering in place, 5th District Councilmember Paul Koretz has proposed temporary limits on construction hours during the COVID-19 emergency.

According to Urbanize LA, Councilmember Koretz proposed a motion to shift construction hours in residential and multi-family residential zones from 7 am to 9 pm on Monday through Friday to 9 am to 9 pm during the week, from 8 am to 6 pm on Saturdays, and on holidays to 9 am to 6 pm, giving residents more quiet hours in the morning. Construction work on Sundays would remain prohibited.

Allison Arieff on the upsides of the new, car-free cities

2020-04-08T20:13:00-04:00

We can see our cities for the first time without the choking traffic, dirty air and honking horns that have so often made them intolerable. Throughout the world, the coronavirus has forced extreme changes in our behavior in just days. And we’re already seeing the impact of those changes: On Monday, for example, Los Angeles had the cleanest air of any major city in the world.

In today's NYT Opinion piece, Allison Arieff attempts to look at the benefits of the global social distancing experiment, from the cleaner city air through unprecedented street access for pedestrians and cyclists to potentially lasting design interventions in the public urban space.

"Covid-19 presents a wholly different challenge," Arieff writes, "how to think about bringing people together while also needing to keep them apart."

Don't miss out on latest developments with Archinect's continuously updated COVID-19 Guide for Architects & Designers.

Florida pushes $2.1 billion worth of transportation projects to lesson COVID-19 fallout

2020-04-08T19:07:00-04:00

In an effort to lessen the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and to take advantage of fewer vehicles on the road during a 30-day stay-at-home order, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered the state DOT to accelerate $2.1 billion of transportation projects.

In an April 1 briefing, according to Construction Dive, the Florida Governor said the state is moving up construction on the $865M Howard Frankland Bridge project between Tampa and St. Petersburg by four weeks; a road widening project in Palm Beach County by three months; the $802 million I-395/SR 836/I-95 design-build project in Miami by four weeks; and a project near International Drive and Universal Boulevard in Orlando by four to six weeks.

Due to the lighter traffic, crews will be able to work longer shifts and close off more lanes, Construction Dive reports.

Airbnb and short-term rentals in the age of COVID-19

2020-04-06T14:59:00-04:00

What will happen to home-sharing in the wake of coronavirus? It’s one of many questions about the fate of pre-pandemic sharing-economy juggernauts like Airbnb. [...] with tourism on hold, national economies staggered, and public attitudes about shared space very much in question, the prospects for that industry are now murky.

Feargus O'Sullivan on the consequences of the short-term rental market's collapse, with particular focus on the industry's dominating player, Airbnb. In the aftermath of a worldwide wave of coronavirus-related booking cancellations, some apartments are reportedly returning to the local long-term rental market.

"Many might welcome the disappearance of at least a proportion of home-shares as a long overdue correction," O'Sullivan writes on CityLab. "It’s certainly possible that quality of life for residents might improve in some heavily touristed areas — such as Barcelona’s Old City — if more apartments had full-time tenants, thus reducing noise nuisance and supporting a broader ecosystem of locally focused stores and amenities."

How architecture students and educators are optimizing their work environments at home

2020-04-03T20:59:00-04:00

For most architecture students, faculty, and staff around the world, working from home has become the new normal since campuses closed in response to the sweeping pandemic several weeks ago.

Archinect wanted to find out how things had been going so far for the architectural academic community and reached out to its readers via the ongoing survey How is your school dealing with the coronavirus outbreak? In our previous two analyses, we looked at the initial experience of working online versus onsite at school and the emotional impact this ongoing new situation was having.

Today, we learn from students and educators how they tried to optimize their work environments to facilitate remote learning and teaching.

The Garage Converter: Photo courtesy of a participating California State University, Sacramento educator.

"It's ALL on my laptop," was the upbeat response from one educator at the California State University, Sacramento. "Other than that, I have a comfortable chair, a space I en...

Seattle architects are supplying face shields to local health workers

2020-04-03T11:51:00-04:00

Architecture firms Weber Thompson of Seattle and MZA of Bellevue are helping supply face shields and goggles to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic locally. Over a two-week period, Weber Thompson plans to print 100 bands — the rigid plastic piece to which the clear face shield attaches to protect the wearer. The bands will be delivered to Seattle Makers, which will attach them and distribute the shields.

According to the Seattle DJC, the group's goal is to provide 5,000 shields for "local hospitals, essential businesses and facilities, homeless shelter workers, and others fighting COVID-19. Weber Thompson is using their 3D printer to create the bands for the face shields, each takes about two to three hours to print, the DJC reports.

In addition to the Weber Thompson and MZA, many other businesses have come on to help with the effort, Seattle Maker co-founder Jeremy Hanson told the DJC. Architects can go to the PRUSA website to locate open-source plans for the face shield bands to contribute if they wish, said Weber Thompson Marketing Director Erin Hatch.

Jupe creates rapid response deployable shelter units for healthcare workers and patient recovery

2020-04-02T18:23:00-04:00

Across the globe, industries are doing the best they can to respond to the global COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting millions of people daily. The architecture and design industry has stepped into action by providing aid and continuous assistant through the PPE fabrication and collaboration with other medical and health institutions.

As numbers of coronavirus patients increase, the need for medical space to assist these patients has decreased. In places like China, Italy, the U.S. and Germany, temporary medical facilities have been constructed. However, one company aims to help mitigate the issue and provide spaces where healthcare workers can rest and patients can recover. Co-founders Jeff Wilson and Cameron Blizzard have teamed together with a group of healthcare professionals, industrial design specialists, architects, and engineers to create another way to help the COVID-19's growing housing and treatment issue.

Images courtesy of JUPE

According to the company's site, "COVID-19...

Composite shelters being developed to aid hospitals in COVID-19 testing and treatment

2020-03-31T15:28:00-04:00

The new Tupelo shelters are designed to be easily and strategically combined with additional rigid-walled Tupelo shelters as well as soft tent shelters. [...] the new shelter’s dynamic design can adapt to fit needs in healthcare for treatment and testing, and perhaps in the evolving classroom setting as well. The shelter can be “flat-packed,” meaning the shelter walls can be stacked on top of each other for high-volume, rapid transportation to affected areas.

Rhode Island-based Core Composites, a leading company that has built and designed advanced composite-based, rigid-wall shelters for the U.S. military, is working to quickly develop an easily deployable shelter that can be used for COVID-19 testing and treatment, and to aid over-capacity hospitals.

How COVID-19 is affecting architecture students and educators on an emotional level

2020-03-31T08:00:00-04:00

The sudden transition to online learning and teaching has presented students, faculty, and staff at many institutions of higher learning around the world with enormous challenges — technological, organizational but also on a human and inter-human level.

Archinect asked for responses from its global community via the ongoing survey How is your school dealing with the coronavirus outbreak? to learn how students and educators in the architecture field were dealing with the transition. In our first analysis, we looked at the main challenges as well as opportunities of working online versus onsite at school.

Today, we are focusing on the emotional impact this ongoing new situation is having on the architectural academic community.

Mood 1: Good (or trying to stay positive)

While some responses did share a positive, or at least somewhat hopeful, sentiment, these answers were clearly in the minority.

"All good... Bored mostly haha," was the upbeat response from a student at the University o...

Carlo Ratti and collaborators propose CURA: emergency COVID-19 medical pods inside converted shipping containers

2020-03-30T17:47:00-04:00

In an effort to rapidly boost effective medical response to the devastating COVID-19 outbreak, an international network of architects, engineers, doctors, military experts, and NGOs have developed an open-source solution to convert shipping containers into plug-in Intensive-Care Units. A first prototype is currently being developed in Milan, Italy where the pandemic has hit especially hard.

The project, called CURA (Connected Units for Respiratory Ailments, and also "cure" in Latin), was initiated by Italian architect, engineer, and director of MIT's Senseable City Lab Carlo Ratti with fellow Italian architect Italo Rota.

Image courtesy of CURA/Carlo Ratti Associati.

"CURA is a compact Intensive-Care pod for patients with respiratory infections, hosted in a 20-foot intermodal container with biocontainment (thanks to negative pressure)," explains the project description. "Each unit works autonomously and can be shipped anywhere. Individual pods are connected by an inflatable structure...

Border wall planning unfazed by coronavirus threat

2020-03-30T13:51:00-04:00

The United States Army Corps of Engineers this week issued Southwest Valley Constructors a contract modification worth $524 million for design-build services on a barrier wall replacement project in Tucson, Arizona, at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The change brings Southwest's contract amount for the project to almost $1.2 billion when combined with the May 2019 initial contract's award of $646 million for the same project.

While construction of all non-essential projects in several US states has been ordered to stop to contain the spread of COVID-19, planning of fortification elements along the US-Mexican border near Tucson, Arizona is going ahead with full steam, as Construction Dive reports.

This 3D-printed, hands-free door opener could be a quick fix to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses

2020-03-28T12:50:00-04:00

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, many architects, designers, and students are turning to 3D-printing to rapidly produce much needed equipment, like protective gear for healthcare workers and respirator valves for sick patients. In their own effort to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, Belgian manufacturing company Materialise recently released free design files for a hands-free door opener that makes you use your wrist (ideally covered by a sleeve) instead of your bare hands to touch door handles, which are a hotspot for germs. Even MayoClinic has printed the door openers to be used in their facilities.

This add-on door opener doesn't require drilling holes or replacing your door's existing handle. According to Materialise, you only have to fasten the two 3D-printed pieces together with screws over your existing door handle. The company also created different designs to fit over different types of door handles. Or, you can adapt their design to make your own.

Last but no...

2020 Salone del Mobile Milan postponed to April 2021

2020-03-27T15:14:00-04:00

Salone del Mobile Milan announced today that the 2020 edition of the anticipated event has been postponed to April 13-18, 2021. The Board of the Salone del Mobile made the decision in light of the coronavirus health crisis that continues to significantly impact countries across the globe. Back in February, the 2020 event was initially rescheduled to take place this June. But the Board ultimately decided they couldn't move forward with that plan in these unprecedented circumstances.

Looking forward, Salone del Mobile expressed optimism for next year's event. The 2021 edition marks their 60th anniversary, which will be celebrated with a single, sector-wide trade fair. For the first time, all biennial exhibitions will be held in conjunction with the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, Workplace3.0, S.Project, and SaloneSatellite. This sector-wide trade fair “will represent a fresh opportunity to pull together to revitalize our businesses, ...

How architecture students and educators are handling the transition to online coursework

2020-03-26T14:26:00-04:00

The recent need for schools and universities across the educational spectrum to transition to online learning practically overnight has caught many students, faculty, and staff around the world completely unprepared, while others enjoyed a smooth transition due to routines and protocols established before the crisis.

Archinect reached out to its global community with the ongoing survey How is your school dealing with the coronavirus outbreak? to learn how students and educators in the architecture field are handling the transition. Over the next few days, we will be sharing some of the key takeaways from the responses.

In this first analysis, we are looking at the biggest challenges as well as benefits of working online versus in-person at school. The responses were not conclusively tilting in any specific direction but rather represented an eclectic mixture of frustration, ease, and cautious hope.

Scenario 1: Easy Transition

Students and educators who reported an overall positive ...

Exploring empty architecture in the age of social distance

2020-03-25T13:14:00-04:00

"I'm going around the world photographing places using live feed cameras," proclaims Twitter user Noah Kalina — kicking off a fascinating and chilling collection of empty streets, vacant squares, deserted piazzas, and desolate agorae.

Public spaces and tourist magnets, once bustling with life, are now, in the sudden age of COVID-19 social distancing and shelter-in-place orders, devoid of the human occupants and civic life they were designed for.

St. Peter's Square. Vatican City. 3/24/2020 13:44 pic.twitter.com/0ZfL3JmfbI
— Noah Kalina (@noahkalina) March 24, 2020 Times Square. New York City. 3/24/2020 08:15 pic.twitter.com/ep4HINXmGF
— Noah Kalina (@noahkalina) March 24, 2020 Trevi Fountain - Rome. 3/23/2020 16:40 pic.twitter.com/N2jDCuXbm1
— Noah Kalina (@noahkalina) March 23, 2020 Bourbon Street. New Orleans, Louisiana. 3/23/2020 14:43 pic.twitter.com/RSteFfcjpn
— Noah Kalina (@noahkalina) March 23, 2020 Milan Cathedral. Milan, Italy. 3/23/202 17:49 pic.twitter.com/xntheacv2n
— No...

Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be postponed, says IOC member, despite completed venues

2020-03-23T14:46:00-04:00

Veteran International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound told USA TODAY Sports Monday afternoon that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are going to be postponed, likely to 2021, with the details to be worked out in the next four weeks. [...] “It will come in stages,” he said. “We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”

While the IOC has not responded directly to veteran member Dick Pound's statement from today, the Committee did signal its commitment to scenario-planning for "changes to the start date of the Games" yesterday amid new outbreaks of COVID-19 in IOC member countries.

This development comes only days after Japan's announcement of the completion of all new permanent venues for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, including the Kengo Kuma-designed Tokyo National Olympic Stadium.

NYC considers converting Jacob K. Javits Convention Center to temporary medical facility

2020-03-21T13:39:00-04:00

[Gov. Andrew Cuomo] has requested four field hospitals of 250 beds each from the federal government, for a total of 1,000 beds. He is looking at Javits for all of those. He's also asked for four Army Corps of Engineers temporary hospitals. For those, he's looking at the Javits Center; SUNY Stony Brook; SUNY Old Westbury; and the Westchester County Center, another events venue.

California’s construction industry is mobilizing to aid coronavirus response

2020-03-20T22:12:00-04:00

Thanks to clarifications from California Governor Gavin Newsom, construction work has been classified as one of the state’s “essential” services and will be allowed to proceed, with certain health and social distancing precautions, amid the increasing social and economic shutdown resulting from the spread of COVID-19.

On Thursday night, the state moved to shut down nonessential businesses as varying degrees of “shelter in place” directives took effect across California, including in the nine county San Francisco Bay Area and in Los Angeles County.

In a recent report, Politico’s Carla Marinucci and Katy Murphy write that “plans are in the works to deploy tens of thousands of construction workers to retool and refit hospitals, hotels and buildings the state needs as a surge response to the coronavirus pandemic.”

The reporters interview Robbie Hunter, president of the California Building and Construction Trades Council, who anticipates a construction surge to help meet a looming incr...

WeWork being pressured to close their locations as more members test positive for coronavirus

2020-03-20T21:11:00-04:00

Some members have signed a petition on the worker advocacy platform Coworker.org calling on WeWork to close its 848 locations worldwide. There are more than 300 locations in the United States. Jill Raney, a Washington-based WeWork member who launched the petition, says the company’s decision to remain open during a public health crisis is “unconscionable.” They said it effectively forces businesses with small margins to choose between wasting money or putting themselves at risk.

As the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. increases rapidly, WeWork has remained open even after some members have tested positive for the virus in at least seven of their New York locations as well as in LA and Chicago, according to The Washington Post. Other members have signed an online petition calling for the company to shut down all its locations worldwide. To add to that, some small business owners who use WeWork are angry that the company is refusing to refund them for spaces they can no longer use.

Despite the growing outcry from their members, WeWork argues that they remain open because it is “in the public interest and that the business is an essential service,” and that they “have members counting on [them] to remain open so they can run their companies,” the article states.

MTA suffers huge losses from COVID-19 pandemic as ridership declines sharply

2020-03-20T17:41:00-04:00

Ridership declines across all of the MTA’s trains and buses is becoming “more severe” by the day, the agency’s latest statistics revealed, causing $87 million in weekly revenue losses and raising the specter of more debt and drastic cuts to much-needed long-term repairs.

Already dealing with financial pressure, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is being hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic, as new ridership data in the latest Annual Disclosure Statement reveals.

"Recent substantial declines in ridership and traffic in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have already been observed and have become more severe daily," reads the statement. "There remains a high risk for further reductions in ridership and people may permanently alter their commutation behavior after this crisis based on their telecommuting experience during the COVID-19 crisis."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by MTA New York City Transit (@mtanyctransit) on Mar 18, 2020 at 7:03pm PDT

Earlier this week, MTA Chairman and CEO, Patrick J. Foye, requested an incremental $4 billion in federal assistance to "allow MTA to respond to the coronavirus pandemic" — more than 23% of the agency's current annual $17.1 billion operating budget.

Architects and fabrication specialists join together to mitigate the COVID-19 medical supply shortage

2020-03-20T11:39:00-04:00

With news of COVID-19 affecting individuals across the globe, hospitals and medical clinics are experiencing a shortage in supplies such as ventilators, respirators, and personal protective equipment (PPE). However, as news of the virus spreads, design professionals are banning together with medical professionals and engineers to find solutions to the shortage.

Public Facebook groups like Open Source Ventilator have created discussion forums to help brainstorm, share, and prototype various solutions. A report from CNET dives into this coverage and shares which companies are joining the effort. "HP, teeth straightener vendor SmileDirectClub and various other companies are exploring ways to use their 3D-printing technology to build things like ventilator valves, breathing filters, and face mask clasps." Earlier this week, Archinect reported of Italian 3D-printing company Isinnova and their success in designing and printing respirator valves for hospitals in the area.

Now more than ev...