As the COVID-19 crisis continues to worsen and foreseeable shortages of necessary safety and medical equipment begin to materialize, several initiatives involving designers have sprung up to aid in the production of specialized protective gear for the doctors and nurses treating sick patients. 

Rapidly Produced Face Shields

One effort is taking root through a network of partnerships between Barnard College and Columbia University, where librarians, designers, and technicians at the school's Design Center are working together to 3D-print protective face shields for medical workers.

The project has resulted in the Guide and Design for Rapidly Produced Face Shields, a document created by Columbia's Digital Scholarship Librarian Alex Gil and Research Data Librarian Moacir P. de Sá Pereira that includes a list of materials and instructions for 3D printing plastic protective visors for hospital use. 

"Although 3D printers can be used to print complex PPE such as N95 masks,"  text on the project website states, "printing a successful mask is beyond the reach of the abilities and budgets of many people who wish to help. On the other hand, 3D printers are very useful for printing visors that can be attached to clear plastic to make face shields. This site provides documentation and the necessary model to 3D print visors."

The visors, according to the designers, are shaped with in such a way that the plastic face shield hangs down at an angle, away from the user's face, allowing the user to still wear face masks and other protective gear while making use of the visor and shield. The guide linked above includes a .stl 3D printer file as well as detailed instructions, troubleshooting tips, and a link to #GetUsPPE, a website dedicated to centralizing emergency hospital donation efforts.

Karen Fairbanks, Architecture Chair at the Barnard and Columbia College Architecture Department and founding partner at Marble Fairbanks, tells Archinect that the effort grew out of communications between a Columbia Librarian, Madiha Choksi, and Columbia University Cardiologist Fellow Dr. Pierre Elias focused on whether the school's digital fabrication facilities could be put to work in aid of the effort to bring more supplies to local hospital workers. 

"Madiha had only two 3D printers that she set up at home to start prototyping an optimized version of a shield," Fairbanks explains, "We heard about the project through librarians at Barnard and will be using the eight 3D printers in the Barnard Design Center and the Barnard Architecture Department to help in this effort, and we'll also use the space in the Design Center to assemble the masks. The project is quickly expanding to include donations to more hospitals. "

Open Source Action-Oriented Research

To clarify & reiterate- Prusa face shield visor is *the best thing to print* right now. Others are also working on a 3d face harness approach, but it's in process. Regardless, one doesn't replace other bc harness, shield & fabric mask all work together. https://t.co/4jWuSlJ5in
— V. Mitch McEwen (@mitchmcewen) March 23, 2020

At Princeton University, the school's Dean of Research recently approved a "Open Source Action-Oriented Research agenda," a project initiated by the Black Box Research Group. Black Box Research Group is a university effort led by Princeton SoA Assistant Professor V. Mitch McEwen; McEwen is also a co-founder of the architectural practice A(n) Office. 

The research agenda aims to convert Princeton's School of Architecture's extensive digital fabrication labs into a "New Jersey essential operation," allowing technicians to come together to help fabricated much needed protective masks, face harnesses, shields, Tyvek gowns, test kids, temporary hospitals, and even respirators and ventilators.

A website supporting the project provides a Google form for interested volunteers as well as a collection of 3D printing files and resources for designers. 

McEwen has worked to organize resources and information for the effort through Twitter and recently announced the addition of team members from the Cornell University School of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP), where Cornell Professor Jenny Sabin is leading efforts between the university’s architecture, engineering, and medical schools geared toward fabricating PPE for the effort. 

In a statement sent to Archinect Sabin writes, “In order to scale the effort quickly, AAP reached out to our incredible alumni network, and within 24-48 hours, our alumni not only joined the 3D-printing efforts but also leveraged their networks. Within hours Handel Associates, KPF, BIG, Grimshaw, [and] Terreform just to name a few started 3d printing the PPE face shield visors and laser cutting the sheild.   Alumni practice leaders (Vivian Kuan, Blake Middleton, Michael Manfredi, Dan Kaplan, Brad Perkins, Doug Gensler, Susan Rodriguez, David Lewis, Rosalie Genevro also leveraged their networks. Through those networks, industry partners such as g-Create, a 3d printer manufacturer, and organization such as NYSCF (New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute) and faculty at Parsons also joined the effort.

In a statement supporting the effort, Cornell AAP Dean Meejin Yoon writes, “The just-in-time economics of our supply chain logistics has created a gap in our current urgent demand for PPEs that has caught the industry off guard,” adding, “While our 'rapid' prototyping machines are not meant for industrial scale manufacturing, and by those standards are not 'rapid', as industry ramps up, our distributed maker capabilities can fill this essential gap to help those on the front lines of the COVID-19 health care crisis.”

At City College of New York, Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture (SSA) Dean Lesley Lokko writes, “The Spitzer School of Architecture and the J Max Bond Center have mobilized its 3D Fabrication resources along with the Grove School of Engineering and the Zahn Center to support [PPE] production in NYC and worldwide. The goal is to provide institutional support in alleviating PPE shortages impacting healthcare professionals combating Covid-19. This is an unprecedented coordination effort amongst CCNY departments to pool resources, expertise and volunteer faculty and student talent across the City College of New York campus.”

Lokko adds, “Ten of SSA's newest 2019 model 3D Printers will relocate to the NYC Makes PPE central production lab in lower Manhattan to become part of a growing consortium of institutions and organizations which has produced and delivered over 2300 PPE as of March 27 to New York City area hospitals. NYC Makes PPE is also running a gofundme campaign to cover material costs for all manufactured PPE donated to hospitals.“

The late architecture critic and professor Michael Sorkin, who passed away from complications related to COVID-19, was a professor at SSA and the school’s effort, according to Lokko, is tied, in part, to honoring Sorkin’s memory.