Now that we have entered yet another wave of the pandemic, we continue to require creative design solutions to adapt how we live and work. In this series, DIAC collects some of the recent design success stories to share with you.
Design for the Post-Peak Pandemic – MicroGEM
After 2 years and 3 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, there remains a need for fast and accurate virus tests at point of need. MicroGEM, a medical technology company based in Charlottesville, Virginia, has developed the first point of care PCR saliva test to be authorized by the FDA for emergency use in the US.
CaféTO Winterization: Design Charrette Report
Winter Update 2021
Design Response to COVID-19: Featured Project, HandSandal
Now that people are returning to the office and spending more time in public spaces, they have concerns about how often and how thoroughly surfaces such as door knobs, buttons, levers and handles are sanitized. HandSandal is a simple hand hygiene device designed by Design 1st that allows for zero-contact with potentially contaminated surfaces in public environments.
DIAC has identified 5 critical impacts of design in 3 Toronto Placemaking projects
In 2020, the Design Industry Advisory Committee (DIAC) developed a Framework to explore critical impacts of design. These impacts apply to all types of projects across all of the design disciplines. DIAC decided to demonstrate these impacts by focusing on design interventions in Placemaking. Successful Placemaking involves a focus on economic prosperity, social wellbeing and environmental sustainability – the fundamental principles of all good design. DIAC wanted to understand how specific design interventions create positive impacts that can be assessed and measured and how these impacts can be applied to other Placemaking projects.
Design Response to COVID-19: Featured Project, Urban Sun
Daan Roosegaarde is a Rotterdam-based designer and innovator whose work exists at the intersection of art, science and design. His installations in the public realm often have an environmental theme. In 2019 Roosegaarde started work on a technical design to sanitize the air in public spaces. With the start of the pandemic the development of the project, called Urban Sun, took on a new urgency.
Design Response to COVID-19: Featured Projects, June 2021
As soon as the pandemic hit last year, industrial designer Kevin Mar was on a video call with a number of his colleagues, a braintrust of people who wanted to help. They considered developing a locally-made ventilator but they quickly realized that designing this complex medical device would need to involve close collaboration with health care and engineering professionals. This project was just too complex to take on at the time.