For design professionals, supporting the ongoing COVID-19 surge in the number of hospital beds needed is a matter of urgency. They are taking steps to educate practitioners about best practices in pop-up hospital design. They also are advising governments about the safe design and construction of temporary facilities. And they are pushing the fledgling Hotel2Hospital movement, with prototype designs and teams ready to act as soon as deals are inked between private hotel owners and the government.
With an eye on mitigating the toll of future epidemics, groups such as the American Institute of Architects (AIA), ASHRAE—which primarily represents heating, ventilating and air-conditioning engineers—and the American Society of Health Care Engineering (ASHE) also are studying ways that codes and standards can be shaped to prevent disease transmission in all buildings.