Guardian G-Volt masks would use graphene and electrical charge to repel viruses and bacteria

LIGC Applications has developed the Guardian G-Volt, a face mask with a graphene filtration system that can be sterilised and safely re-used.

Global interest in protective masks has surged in recent months, due to ongoing coronavirus outbreaks around the world. However, the company, which is based in New York, said it had taken five years to design and test the mask. They are now crowdfunding the project online.

With its graphene filtration system the Guardian G-Volt is 99 per cent effective against particles over 0.3 micrometers, and 80 per cent effective against anything smaller, claims LIGC Applications.

For comparison, a N95 respirator mask blocks 95 per cent of particles over 0.3 micrometers. Viruses such as coronavirus can be transmitted through tiny droplets of water.

A low level electrical charge will pass through Guardian G-Volt when it is plugged in to a portable battery pack via a USB port. This charge would repel any particles trapped in the graphene mask.

At home, a docking system will allow the mask to be fully sterilised so it can be worn again.

With coronavirus outbreaks around the world, the effectiveness of N95 respirator masks has been called into question. Once these masks become damp, they must be disposed of and replaced.

"We completely understand and the timing is cause for this cynical response," LIGC Applications' head of international outreach Yossi Levin told Dezeen.

However, he stressed that the mask has been in the making for years, and has been tested at both Ben Gurion University in Israel and Rice University in the US.

"The timing of the campaign for us is an alignment of a worldwide need and technology that has come of age," Levin added.

"We are first and foremost scientists and are extremely honoured to be able to bring this technology at a time of need."

The World Health Organisation (WHO) currently advises only those who are directly in contact with coronavirus patients and people who have a cough wear the mask.

Masks can protect against inhaling the virus via the nose and mouth, but it can still be caught through the eyes. Regular hand washing is the most effective defence against coronavirus.

Graphene – an atom-thick material that has a range of impressive characteristics – is naturally antibacterial, so the Guardian G-Volt can also protect the wearer from bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria also poses an increasing threat to populations.

The graphene in the mask is a kind called laser-induced graphene, a microporous conductive foam that can trap bacteria and conduct the electricity needed to sterilise the mask's surface.  It can then be heated and sterilised in the at-home dock.

Wearing the mask can also protect against breathing in air pollution.

A LED light alerts the user when the mask needs to be replaced.

LIGC Applications will manufacture the laser-induced graphene filters and the masks in Belgium.

In direct response to the coronavirus, artist Danielle Baskin has started developing printed face masks that can let the user still unlock their phone with facial recognition while wearing them.

Chinese architect Sun Dayong has designed a concept for a wearable shield that would use UV light to sterilise itself and protect the wearer.

 

 

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Johanna Dumet embraces an open approach to colour and material within her work

The Berlin-based artist utilises her background in fashion to create work that is “honest, frank and free.”

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Barozzi Veiga creates trapezoidal riverside arcade for Zürich dance centre

Barozzi Veiga has completed the Tanzhaus dance centre in Zürich, which opens onto a promenade along the river Limmat with a concrete arcade of trapezoid openings.

Barozzi Veiga  designed the building to replace an existing structure that originally housed the Tanzhaus and the Swiss Textile School, which was destroyed by a fire in 2012.

The architect won a competition to create the dance school's new home in 2014 with a two-storey structure that steps down sloping the river bank.

"The project aimed to reactivate the promenade along the river, transforming and redefining the previous residential conditions of the location," said the studio.

"In this way, the building is defined as a simple and tiered volume of space integrated into the slope and barely noticeable from the outside."

The private teaching spaces of Tanzhaus are housed on the upper floor, while a double-height public performance spaces and a triple-height auditorium occupy the lower level.

An elongated foyer runs alongside the river, accessed through the "permeable facade" of the trapezoidal arcade, infilled with glazing and accessed via a metal door in one of its openings.

"The choice of the trapezoidal form is the result of a transformation of the traditional orthogonal system of pillars, beams and rectangular openings," said the studio.

"Indeed, the repetition of this shape and the use of a performing insulated concrete allowed for a continuous structural facade, which, at the same time, protects and characterises the building."

A concrete stair at one end of the building provides access from the street down to the riverbank, via a gravel terrace atop the lower level that creates another area of circulation overlooking the river.

"This division allows for different accesses and activates the circulation around the building, reinforcing its public nature at that level in direct contact with the river Limmat," explained the studio.

Lightweight metal frames provide a means for climbing plants to grow around the edges of the trapezoidal openings, casting dappled light into the foyer spaces.

In the largest auditorium, the openings of the first floor become clerestory windows, creating an internal geometry that mirrors that of the exterior.

The interiors have been finished with bare concrete, with the performance spaces finished with an upper band and ceiling of acoustic panelling and able to be enclosed by black curtains.

Barozzi Veiga is an architecture studio in Barcelona that was founded by Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga in 2004.

Previous cultural buildings by the studio include a gridded concrete extension to the Bündner Museum in Chur, and the translucent Szczecin Philharmonic Hall in Poland, which was awarded the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2015.

Photography is by Simon Menges.

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Grenfell architect unaware of fire rules and cladding risk

The lead architect on the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, which was completed the year before the building caught fire in 2017, has revealed that he was not aware of all the fire safety advice for tall buildings.

Bruce Sounes, an associate architect at Studio E responsible for managing the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower in 2015 and 2016, has told the enquiry into the fire that he had not read sections of Approved Document B – the fire safety advice laid out by the UK government's Building Regulations 2010.

Sounes gave evidence at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry on 2 to 4 March 2020.

Asked if he familiarised himself with the fire safety requirements in Approved Document B during the Grenfell Tower refurbishment project, Sounes said: "I can't recall doing so, no".

When asked if he read it at the time he added: "I referred to it on occasion, but I certainly didn't read it from start to finish, no."

Architect unaware of cladding fire risk

Sounes also did not read the document's specific fire safety guidance for buildings over 18 metres tall.

Asked if he had read this guidance he replied: "No, I was aware that they may exist, yes, but I myself did not refer to part B at the time."

Grenfell Tower, where 72 people died after its cladding system caught fire, was over 67 metres tall.

Sounes stated that he was also unaware of issues around the combustibility of aluminium cladding panels, which are increasingly used as exterior insulation in the push for more energy-efficient buildings.

"I thought their melting temperature was quite high," Sounes said of aluminium panels. "I was not aware they were combustible or a risk."

Sounes said he was aware of London's Lakanal House fire in 2009, where six people died. That inquest found that victims had been trapped when fire spread rapidly through the exterior cladding, but Sounes said he did not know that detail.

He had not heard about a series of tower cladding fires that had happened in Dubai between 2012 and 2015.

"Architects generally don't approve drawings"

Neil Crawford, another Studio E associate, took over the Grenfell Tower project in 2014. He was a witness at the Inquiry on 5 March.

Crawford, who had not completed his RIBA part 3 architecture qualification, said that his role was only to sign off on the "architectural intent" of drawings submitted by Harley facades for approval before construction.

"Specialist packages such as cladding, lifts, stairs, etc. would be completed by, and the primary responsibility of specialist subcontractors," Crawford told the inquiry.

"Architects generally don't approve drawings, they comment on them," he added.

It was not the responsibility of architects to check that the cladding system was compliant with building regulations, he said.

Refurbishment design made "crap situation worse"

Emails from Cate Cooney, senior consultant at materials testing company Exova, to her colleagues were read out to Sounes at the Inquiry. In the emails, Cooney said that Exova would have to "massage" Studio E's proposal to improve its fire safety.

"They are making an existing crap condition worse," she wrote. "It's a matter of working the worse bits out and making the new stuff work."

She said that Studio E's decision to add an extra level to the podium to add more flats to the building would put more stress on the only evacuation route down the tower's single staircase. She also noted that there were "no sprinklers wanted" by Studio E.

Sounes said he was unaware that Exova felt there was "a fundamental problem" with the designs.

He also said that Studio E did not seriously look into a sprinkler system for Grenfell Tower because Exova, as the fire safety expert, had not recommended them.

Studio E had no high rise experience

Andrzej Kuszell, a founding member of Studio E, who set up the architecture firm in 1994, confirmed that his practice considered the "environmental impacts of our buildings" and was familiar with the products used to improve a building's thermal performance.

Kuszell defended the fact that his practice had no experience with high-rise buildings before taking on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment.

"The issue of whether a project poses new challenges is not, I think – if that is the implication, that somehow we were not capable of doing the project, I think that is false," Kuszell told the inquiry on 2 March.

"Because clearly every project, in your experience, there comes a point when every project is a first, and we had actually been dealing with projects of quite some sophistication and complexity as firsts."

Kuszell confirmed that the refurbishment project's budget of £8.5 million was lower than the budgets of between £15 and £30 million on the schools and leisure projects it specialised in.

Studio E sorry for fire deaths

Speaking to the bereaved and survivors attending the Inquiry, and to his team, Kuszell apologised for the fire,

He said he was "really, really sorry" for the tragedy, and criticised government fire safety rules for not being strong enough.

Kuszell said: "If we had understood that the building regulations were not robust, if we had understood that we can't trust a certification, if we had understood that advice that was being given from parties who were either specialists or marketing products were that unreliable and misleading – this is so sad to say, but I don’t think this tragedy would have happened."

The first phase of the inquiry concluded with its chair Martin Moore-Bick stating that there was "compelling evidence" the tower did not comply with building regulations on how external walls should not allow fire to spread.

"On the contrary, they actively promoted it," he said.

 

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Behind Malwine Stauss’ playful work is an important and empowering message

“Soft and strong” forms and colours are utilised across the German illustrator’s practice.

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