Architects have turned to shipping containers to make everything from pop-up shops to co-working spaces, and even makeshift homes. But now the humble corrugated steel box might have found one of its most useful reincarnations yet, in the hands of an international network of architects and engineers who have come together to convert them into two-bed intensive care units for the coronavirus pandemic.
The open-source project, dubbed Connected Units for Respiratory Ailments (CURA) is harnessing the skills of experts from around the world to develop self-contained, mobile ICUs that can be plugged into hospitals or installed in parking lots.
The first prototype unit, currently under construction in Italy, is nearly complete and is scheduled to be deployed in a hospital in Milan.
CURA units are designed to be far more than a giant metal box with a couple of beds inside. Each is set up with negative air pressure, creating a bio-confinement environment that can restrict the virus from leaving the chamber.
It's one major advantage over the tent-like centers that hospitals have been setting up to cope with the influx of patients, which could put doctors and other health-care workers at risk of infection.
Since the approximately six-meter-long shipping container design is more or less standard around the world, the CURA design should be more or less adaptable around the world.
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