Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2020

  • Work on this object began.

2021

2025

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Video, Connected Units for Respiratory Ailments (CURA)

This is a Video. It is a part of the department.

Italy was the first country in the European Union to be hit hard by COVID-19. CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati in Turin, Italy created an open-source design and working prototype for an intensive care unit utilizing a shipping container. One unit can house two patients. Windows admit light and allow clinicians and family members to view patients. An inflatable structure connects the unit to the hospital and serves as a storage and changing room. Unlike a field hospital built in a tent or stadium, this negative-pressure unit isolates sick patients. Open-source plans for CURA have been downloaded and adapted for local manufacturing. Three units were built in Greece in 2021.

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318805645/ |title=Video, Connected Units for Respiratory Ailments (CURA) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=10 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>