Architectural Insight General Information ℹ️ Architectural style: Contemporary Architect: Snøhetta Location: Oslo, Norway Completed: 2007 - 2008 Client: Statsbygg Structural system: Flat "iceberg" shape with inclined, white lines 👉 Visit Structures Insider's homepage for more stories.👈 A bit about the ARCHITECT Snøhetta (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈsnøːˌhɛtɑ]) began as a collaborative architectural and landscape workshop and has remained true to its trans-disciplinary way of thinking since its inception. Our work strives to enhance our sense of surroundings, identity and relationship to others and the physical spaces we inhabit, whether feral or human-made. Museums, products, reindeer observatories, graphics, landscapes and dollhouses get the same care and attention to purpose. Venue EVENTS A variety of Operas, Ballets and concerts are presented at the Oslo Opera. BUY Tickets here 🎫 WEBSITE: https://operaen.no/en/your-visit-at-oslo-operahouse/practical-information/ ENGINEERING Facts Engineer: ARUP In addition to the acoustic design for the main auditorium, the Arup team brought its international opera house experience to bear on controlling noise from theatre equipment and other aspects of the venue’s acoustic design. SoundLab produces an accurate 3D sound experience that allows clients, users, architects and designers to listen to music in the proposed design and compare the sound quality against different world-class auditoria. It even gives the option of listening from different seats in the virtual auditorium. RECCOMENDED VIDEO FOR YOU...

General Info 📚 The Museum of Ethnography in Budapest is one of the largest ethnography museums in Europe. If you are into travel photos, and National Geographic photography, you will love this place. It was founded as the Ethnographic Department of the Hungarian National Museum in 1872 The museum focuses on the way of life, culture and art of the Hungarian peasantry. For more stories visit Structure's Insider Archive The Old Design 🗿 The building that hosts the museum today, was originally built by Alajos Haussmann (1847-1926) for the Ministry of Justice After World War II, damages to the building were repaired and the entire palatial construction renovated by the architect Elemér Csánk. In 1950 the Institute of the Hungarian Labour Movement moved into the building. Later, in April 1957, it was occupied by the Institute of Party History and the Hungarian National Gallery. The Museum of Ethnography moved in in 1973. Ticket prices 🎟 1400 HUF full-price adult tickets, 700 HUF children (and EU citizens under 26) Opening Hours at the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography, Budapest Tuesday – Sunday  10 am – 6 pm (closed on Mondays) The Ultimate tour guide of Budapest Recommended by Structures Insider Available to buy on Amazon here The New Design 🏗 In 2016, a competition to determine the designer the museum of ethnography in Hungary resulted in a shortlist of 15 high-profile teams. The winner of the contest was locally-based firm Napur Architect, who beat established names such as BIG, OMA, and Zaha Hadid Architects to win the commission. The new building forms part of liget Budapest, a vast development that involves the complete rehabilitation of the centrally located city park. as part of the masterplan, scheduled to complete by 2020. As part of light Budapest, the collection that comprises the museum of ethnography will be housed in a purpose-built facility for the first time. Napur architect describes its design as having dynamic yet simple lines that both harmonize with the park environment and communicate with the surrounding urban area. Positioned at the edge of the park, the project has been conceived as a gateway to the city that allows pedestrians to access its two green roofs. In fact, sixty per cent of the structure will be below ground, with its two ends curving upwards to bring in natural light and provide additional floor space. Source: https://www.neprajz.hu, https://www.designboom.com You May Also Like: 5 books you NEED to own if you are a 1st-year civil engineering student Top 5 engineering consulting firms 2019 What's the most impressive ancient structure in the world?

General Info 📚 Architect: Henning Larsen Architectural style: Neo-futurism Construction dates: 2001-2005 Seating capacity:1,700 Design of one of the largest canopy roof structures in the world. 👉For more stories visit Structure’s Insider HomePage👈 A bit about the Architect Henning Larsen, (20 August 1925 – 22 June 2013) was a Danish architect. He is internationally known for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Riyadh and the Copenhagen Opera House. Larsen studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1952. He continued studies subsequently at the Architectural Association School of Architecture and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Larsen founded an architectural firm that bears his name, Henning Larsen Architects (formerly Henning Larsens Tegnestue A/S). From 1968 to 1995, he was a professor of architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In 1985, he established the SKALA architecture gallery and the parallel SKALA architecture journal, both entities of which continued until 1994. Source: Wikipedia You Will Also Like: The Complexity of the Copenhagen Opera House roof |Finite Element Analysis using LUSAS Architectural Insight The building was designed by architect Henning Larsen in close and often problematic collaboration with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. Mærsk wanted the building to have several features in its design: it would not become obsolete in function and appearance due to any fiscal compromise. He personally tested seats and materials, he visited many places in the world to see how opera buildings were constructed and how the building materials were looking after having been exposed over time to weather. Henning Larsen, on the other hand, was trying to make sure that the original architectural ideas were carried through the construction process, especially concerning the large glass surface front, which became a matter of great controversy and subsequent compromise. The building exterior is faced with Jura Gelb, a beige limestone quarried in Germany. It is situated on ground that is surrounded by canals that are designed to give the impression the structure is on an island. The bridges constructed to access the building were made from oak trees originally planted in the 19th century for use in replacing the national fleet that was lost with the bombardment of Copenhagen in September 1807. The front of the building was originally designed with large glazing panels in order to see the shell of the auditorium from the harbourside. However, Mærsk emphasized that glass does not age well, so the façade was changed to a metal grid. The foyer floor is Sicilian Perlatino marble. The central foyer holds three spherical chandeliers created by the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Each chandelier consists of several pieces of glass, which are semipermeable allowing some light to pass, and some to reflect. The patterns change when viewed from different angles. The auditorium ceiling is gilded with about 105,000 sheets of an almost pure carat (100%) gold leaf. The floor in the main auditorium is smoked oak. The balcony faces have been designed with openings in a special pattern to improve sound quality, and LED-based lighting that can be illuminated in a variety of patterns. Read more: 5 Structures you can't miss when visiting Madrid, Spain Planning a trip to Cologne? This is everything you need to know about Cologne Cathedral What's the most impressive ancient structure in the world?

General Info 📑 Renzo Piano, born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (2015) and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens (2016). He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998. 👉 Visit Structures Insider's homepage for more stories.👈 Top of his most recognised buildings are listed below: No.3: New York Times Building 🇺🇸 FACTS 🏗📊 Owner: The New York Times Height: 1,046 ft (318.8 m) Cost: $850 million 💰 Location: 620 Eighth Avenue, Manhattan, New York 10018 Structural engineer: Thornton Tomasetti No2: Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens 🇬🇷 FACTS 🏗📊 Type: Cultural Center Website: http://www.snfcc.org/ Cost: €566 million Capacity: 1,400-seat opera auditorium and a 400-seat black box theatre. No1: The Shard, London 🇬🇧 FACTS 🏗📊 Cost: £435 million Height: 310 m (1,017 ft) Structural engineer: WSP Global Lifts/elevators: 36 You May Also Like: What's the most impressive ancient structure in the world? 5 Structures you can't miss when visiting Madrid, Spain Planning a trip to Cologne? This is everything you need to know about Cologne Cathedral

General Informationℹ️ Client: OPPO Telecommunications Location: Shenzhen, China 🇨🇳 planned completion period: 2020-2025 Proposed height: 200m Floor count: 42 floors Square Area: 185 000 m2 Innovations: LEED Gold certification 👉 Visit Structures Insider's homepage for more stories.👈 Zaha Hadid Architects was awarded the opportunity to design the brand-new Shenzhen headquarters for electronics and mobile giant Oppo, China’s top smartphone manufacturer. ZHA was able to secure the win among the five finalists for the project which included other top firms such as Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP), and Henning Larsen Architects HK. Abit about OPPO: Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd, commonly referred to as OPPO, is a Chinese consumer electronics and mobile communications company headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong. It is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics Corporation along with OnePlus, Vivo, and Realme. Its major product lines include smartphones, Blu-ray players, and other electronic devices. Oppo is the 5th largest smartphone manufacturer in the world with more than 40 000 employees in more than 40 countries. As Architectural Digest reported: With its new headquarters in Shenzhen, the company hopes to reflect what it calls its “commitment to connectivity through design.” and... Large atrium spaces unite all occupants through visual connectivity, helping to foster collaboration between different departments,” the firm’s statement read. The 185,000 square meter project consists of four interconnected towers, reaching maximum heights of 200m with 42 floors, generating large civic spaces at street level. The first two towers offer “flexible, open-plan spaces linked by a 20-story vertical lobby, and two external service towers providing vertical circulation”. Shifting the service core to the exterior of the building provides an unrestricted and uninterrupted view throughout the building. Project credits: Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects Design: Patrik Schumacher and Christos Passas Zaha Hadid Architects project directors: Charles Walker (Commercial Director), Christos Passas (Design Director), Satoshi Ohashi (ZHA China Director) Zaha Hadid Architects project associates: Hussam Chakouf (Competition Lead), Juan Liu, Yang Jingwen Zaha Hadid Architects project designers: Melhem Sfeir (Competition Lead), Duo Chen, Katerina Smirnova Zaha Hadid Architects project team: Massimo Napoleoni (Facade Specialist), Aleksander Bursac, Mihai Dragos-Porta, Vera Kichanova, Ying Xia, Che-Hung Chien, Meng Zhao, Qi Cao, Alex Turner (Graphic Designer) Zaha Hadid Architects workspace analysts: Uli Blum, Philipp Siedler, Lorena Espaillat Bencosme Zaha Hadid Architects project support: Tatiana Chembereva, Camille Kelly Sources: Zaha Hadid Architects, archdaily

#news A new motorway spanning 1,250 miles (2,012 km) was approved by the leaders of Russia and China The project is known as Meridian Highway, will be a part of wider cooperation between China and Russia, with the purpose of increasing trade It is expected to cost £7.5 billion (600 rubles) The Meridian Highway will connect Europe with Central Asia and will decrease cost for consumers and suppliers for both China and European market. The new toll link is expected to cost around 600 billion roubles (£7.5billion), and will be built using a public-private partnership – with guarantees to investors about returns. It is hoped the road will shorten trucking routes between cargo hubs in western China and central Europe. The four-lane highway will enter Belarus close to Smolensk and go through Moscow and Minsk ending in Shanghai. The idea behind it is to offer a faster alternative to three existing trade corridors currently used to move goods to their markets – including the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Suez Canal. The construction is mending to finish in 12 years if everything goes by plan. Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/

Quick FACTS 🧾 Structural engineer: Arup, Aronsohn Architects: MVSA Architects Main contractor: Heijmans Floor count: 10 Height: 48m Floor area: 5,600m2 Construction dates: Nov 1999 - Sep 2002 👉 Visit Structures Insider's homepage for more stories.👈 Design 🏗 MSVA Architects Sleek and futuristic, our glass and aluminium ING House occupies a kind of no man’s land. Flanking a busy road (the A10), with the high-rise Zuidas business area on one side and the green belt of the Nieuwe Meer on the other, the location is a border zone. In this ambiguous territory, we set out to create a building that would not only fulfil our client’s complex needs, but also bring joy to every occupant – from board member to receptionists. Raising our glass-skinned structure on stilts enables every work and meeting space to look out towards an energising city view, rather than the road and embankment. Raising the building in this way also allowed room at ground level for a spacious entrance zone. The glazed entrance lobby is surrounded by green lawns. Running underneath the building is an approach road for taxis, coaches and board members’ chauffeurs. A car park and bicycle garage are located below grade. The auditorium and its foyer can be used by the entire ING group and has its own entrance with lifts. The building responds to its surroundings with an ‘intelligent’ facade design. The long south elevation has to contend with a high solar heat load and the north elevation with noise and air pollution from the A10 motorway. A double-skin facade ensures a pleasant indoor climate for all, with the possibility of natural ventilation. On the south side, solar shading hangs in the facade cavity; a natural chimney effect extracts solar heat. The glazed skin on the motorway side is closed and the cavity is supplied with fresh air drawn from the south side. Source: Archdaily.com , MSVA Architects Read more: Concrete variable radius arch dam explained

Quick FACTS 🧾 The roof of the new Copenhagen Opera House is one of the largest canopy roof structures in the world. With a plan dimensions of 158m by 90 m, it equates to the size of three football fields. LUSAS finite element analysis was used for the design of the structure in order to ensure the necessary strength, stability and dynamic response was achieved. Static, dynamic and thermal assessment of the roof for in-service loadings were made. 👉 Visit Structures Insider's homepage for more stories.👈 What is Finite Element Analysis (FEA)? Finite Element Analysis or FEA is the simulation of a physical phenomenon using a numerical mathematic technique referred to as the Finite Element Method, or FEM. Engineers can use these FEM to reduce the number of physical prototypes and run virtual experiments to optimize their designs. Consider a concrete beam with support at both ends, facing a concentrated load on its centre span. The deflection at the centre span can be determined mathematically in a relatively simple way, as the initial and boundary conditions are finite and in control. However, once you transport the same beam into a practical application, such as within a bridge, the forces at play become much more difficult to analyze with simple mathematics. Roof design and construction To design the roof a number of technical challenges had to be overcome: It had to be shown that the structure possessed the necessary strength and stiffness as preliminary calculations had shown that it was almost impossible to design the entire structure using common truss girders in two directions It was important that in any final roof design the first mode shapes involved not only localised deformations of the outer corners but included deformations of the whole roof structure to ensure a dynamic response of the roof within acceptable limits. It had to be able to safely resist the large temperature differences in winter between the cantilevered part and the internal roof over the foyer. Ramboll chose to construct the cantilever roof as a closed steel box because a significantly higher flexural as well as torsional rigidity is obtained compared to that for a traditional lattice roof structure. The roof structure could not be designed as a closed box over the total area because of differential temperatures but was divided into a section made as a box and the remaining section made of a number of girders. The outer ring beam forms the inner closure of the box, and the radial beams are designed so that the flaring of the beams can absorb the horizontal axial stresses from the box structure... To analyze stability problems in the slender plates, Ramboll developed comprehensive new formulas for biaxial stress combinations, which included post-critical stresses and not only initial buckling stresses. These formulas led to significantly lower plate thicknesses in the cantilevered roof. Static Analysis The roof was designed for wind, snow and dead loads, as well as for stresses caused by temperature and for any settlement of the foyer columns. The wind load was based on results from wind tunnel tests. A 3D LUSAS model of the closed box and the girders of the roof structure was used for both static and dynamic analyses and these calculations determined all the normal stresses in the plates, parallel and perpendicular to the troughs, as well as the shear stresses and all internal forces in each beam in the girders. The static analysis proved the box structure to be an optimal solution, due to the use of stresses in both directions of the plates in combination with the shear stresses from the large torsional moments in the structure. Dynamic Behaviour Preliminary studies for a truss girder roof indicated an unacceptable response. By constructing the roof as a closed box the dynamic wind load was reduced to an acceptable level, and damping devices were not required. Eigenvalue analyses with LUSAS showed that the first mode shape for the closed box roof involved not only local deflections of the outer corners but also a global deflection of the entire front of the roof. A wind tunnel test was carried out to determine the time-averaged wind load on the structures and the fluctuating wind load, which were combined with mode shapes, natural frequencies and modal masses of the structures to determine the dynamic response. Differential Temperatures The external cantilevered part of the roof forms a horseshoe around the foyer area, and contracts in winter compressing the structure over the foyer. Roller bearings sit between the cantilevered box and the foyer girder portion of the roof and release the differential horizontal deformations in the north-south direction, and can transfer compression/tension forces in the vertical direction. Carrying out a differential temperature analysis with LUSAS showed how the structure over the foyer contracts in the north-south direction, the girders will deflect horizontally and the entire foyer structure moves towards the east. Hans Exner, Senior Chief Engineer at Ramboll said: "All of us at Ramboll are really proud of this building. It was a very valuable project for our client, for Copenhagen and for ourselves. The Opera House opened on 15 January 2005. It received the 2008 International Association for Bridge & Structural Engineering's Outstanding Structure Award, principally in recognition of the innovative design of its roof. You May Also Like: Why the Millennium bridge experienced unexpected swaying? For more visit the LUSAS website Source: lusas.com, simscale.com

The order of events in the Bridge's collapse Around 11.00 am that morning the Section Engineer contacted Jack Hindshaw, the Resident Engineer, and advised that things were not going well. Hindshaw arrived on site and was instantly aware that a potentially dangerous situation was imminent and decided to get further advice, making a phone call to Gerit Hardenber, a Senior Representative of WSC Melbourne. The last words that Hindshaw was heard saying were "Shall I get the bods off?" (referring to all the workers). It was then, at 11.50 am, that span 10 -11 collapsed, taking the lives of 35 men, Jack Hindshaw among them. Two years into the construction of the bridge, at 11:50 am on 15 October 1970, the 112-metre (367-foot) span between piers 10 and 11 collapsed and fell 50 metres (164 feet) to the ground and water below. The Consequences Thirty-five construction workers were killed and 18 injured, and it remains Australia's worst industrial accident to this day. Many of those who perished were on lunch break beneath the structure in workers' huts, which were crushed by the falling span. Others were working on and inside the span when it fell. The whole 2,000-tonne (4,400,000 lb) mass plummeted into the Yarra River mud with an explosion of gas, dust and mangled metal that shook buildings hundreds of metres away. Nearby houses were spattered with flying mud. The roar of the impact, the explosion, and the fire that followed could be clearly heard over 20 kilometres (12 mi) away. 👉 Visit Structures Insider's homepage for more stories.👈 The Engineering fault that caused the collapse On the day of the collapse, there was a difference in camber of 11.4 centimetres (4.5 in) between two half-girders at the west end of the span which needed to be joined. It was proposed that the higher one be weighted down with 10 concrete blocks, each weighing 8 t (8.8 short tons), which were located on-site. The weight of these blocks caused the span to buckle, which was a sign of structural failure. The longitudinal joining of the half-girders was partially complete when orders came through to remove the buckle. As the bolts were removed, the bridge snapped back and the span collapsed. What can we learn from this tragedy? We can all take something away from this, whether it be to design a better building, ensure that codes of practice and guidelines are being met or to simply make our workplaces as safe and as compliant as possible. Whatever we do take away from this we should always be aware that our foremost priority must be to provide the safest environment we can for our workers. Take our Height Safety Health Check to determine if you are doing all you can to ensure the safety of your workers. The West Gate Bridge - Melbourne - 2020 Source: sayfa.com.au , Wikipedia.com You May Also Like: What's the most impressive ancient structure in the world? Concrete variable radius arch dam explained New York City is planning to expand Manhattan into East River to battle climate change

How a tied-arch Work? Thrust arches rely on horizontal restraint from the foundations. The vertical and horizontal reactions resolve into a force along with the arch members. The ends of the arches are normally pinned. This will be the most satisfactory solution when the arch bears onto good foundation material such as competent rock. However, the horizontal reactions lead to heavy uneconomic foundations. The tied-arch offers a solution that the deck can be arranged in different desirable levels since it can carry the horizontal force as a tie member. Loading of the hangers Thrusts downwards on a tied-arch bridge deck are translated, as tension, by vertical ties such as steel wire hangers between the deck and the arch. This loads then develop thrust in the arch which is balanced by tension in the tie of the deck and the arch member. The arch the deflects down and the loads are transmitted to the foundation supports with the free end absorbing all the movement such as temperature breaking loads and general live loads of the bridge. TOP 5 TIE-ARCH BRIDGES 5.Infinity Bridge, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 4. Godavari Arch Bridge, Rajahmundry 🇮🇳 3. Clyde Arch Bridge, Glasgow 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 2.Infinity Footbridge, Stockton 🇸🇪 1. Fort Pitt Bridge, USA 🇺🇸 Source: SteelConstruction.info Read more: 5 Structures you can't miss when visiting Madrid, Spain Planning a trip to Cologne? This is everything you need to know about Cologne Cathedral What's the most impressive ancient structure in the world?

Quick Introduction to Fluid Mechanics Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids (liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them. As civil engineers, we use fluid mechanics analysis in two types of flows: Open channel flow Pipe flows The main difference open channel flow and pipe flows is the boundary conditions and the free surface of the liquid. 1. Open Channel flow: Open channel flows are characterised by a free surface (usually) open to the atmosphere. Open channel flows examples are streams, rivers, artificial canals, irrigation ditches, flumes, pipe-lines, culverts, tunnels, sewer lines, gutters, domestic draining boards. 2. Pipe or duct flow: All of the cross-section is taken up with the fluid. This is referred to as a "closed conduit". The energy in pipe flow is expressed as head and is defined by the Bernoulli equation. Classification of flow types 1. Steady and Unsteady flow Flow is termed steady or unsteady according to whether the velocity and hence the depth at a particular point on the channel - varies with time (=temporal variations) Steady flow: Flow is one in which the conditions of velocity, pressure and cross-section may differ from point to point but does not change with time. Unsteady flow: If at any point the conditions change with time. (However most open channels are considered steady) 2. Uniform and Non-uniform flow Uniform flow: Is the flow that occurs when the various quantities do not change from point to point over a specified region - at a particular instant in time. When the average velocities in successive cross-sections of a channel are the same. This only occurs when the liquid surface is parallel to the base of the channel. constant cross-section = uniform = equilibrium form Non-uniform flow: or varied flow occurs when the various quantities change from point to point over a specified region - at a particular instant in time. When depth or velocity changes over a distance either in the direction of flow or perpendicular to it. Definitions: Gradually varied flow: Small change Rapidly varied flow: Wave You May Also Like: Concrete variable radius arch dam explained An arch dam is a concrete dam that is curved upstream in a plan. The arch dam is designed so that the force of the water against it. Advantages of the arch dame are they are thinner than any other dam type, they require much less construction material, making them economical and practical. An example is the Hoover dam... Read More... Combinations of flows Uniform (constant depth) flow Non-uniform (variable depth) flow Non-uniform(variable depth) rapidly and gradually varied flow Steady uniform flow (easiest to analyse - common flow in pipes) Steady non-uniform flow Unsteady, uniform flow (pumping) Non-steady, non-uniform flow ( decelerating flow channels) 3. Laminar and Turbulent flow a.Laminar flow At lower velocities, fluid particles move in straight lines through the velocity of the particles along each line may not necessarily be the same - move in layers or laminae b. Turbulent flow At higher velocities, the fluid particles no longer move in a straight path but are intertwining and crossing one another in a disordered, chaotic manner. Turbulent flow is assumed in open channels analysis Fact: Even if the surface of a flowing liquid appears smooth and glassy, is no indication that turbulent flow does not exist underneath. 4. Tranquil and Rapid flow Tranquil and Rapid flows are fully dependant on the Froude number of the flow classified. Froude number: a dimensionless value that describes different flow regimes of open channels Tranquil flow: ( Fr<1.0) When the flow velocity is small it is possible for a small disturbance to travel against the flow and thus affect the conditions upstream Rapid flow: (Fr>1.0) When the flow velocity is high enough that a small disturbance cannot travel ( propagate) against the flow hence cannot affect the conditions upstream. Drop us a question at Quora What is Quora?: Quora is a question-and-answer website where questions are asked, answered, and edited by Internet users, either factually, or in the form of opinions.

COVID-19 to this day has infected 6.8 million and killed 397 thousand people making it one of the deadliest global pandemics of modern history. The reopening of shops and offices will create new engineering challenges in adapting existing infrastructure and designing new, for allowing social distancing practice for the new norm of post-COVID period. Engineers, Architects and Urban designers should come together to identify and tackle the issues concerning social distancing in public spaces for the near and far future. Here are some concepts that could be easily adjusted: Automatic Sliding Doors Contactless Security Systems Advanced ventilation systems Smart Crowds control Social distancing signage 1. Automatic Sliding Doors The longest viability of both viruses was on stainless steel and plastic; the estimated median half-life of SARS-CoV-2 was approximately 5.6 hours on stainless steel and 6.8 hours on plastic" According to BBC: An alarming recent study published by researchers at Imperial College London showed that viral DNA left on a hospital bed rail in an isolation room had spread within ten hours to 18 other surfaces, including door handles, chairs in a waiting room, children's toys and books in a play area. Read the full article here: Automatic doors technology is cheap and safe, use them and make it standard practice for public infrastructure. 2. Contactless Security Systems Near-field communication(NFC) is a set of communication protocols for communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm (1​1⁄2 in) or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection with a simple setup that can be used to bootstrap more capable wireless connections. Touch-free Elevators Motion detection doors NFC technology was invented in 2002 - Transport of London (TfL) introduced contactless OYSTER Card in 2004 - Is it about time for contactless technology to become the new norm to every household door/ building entrance where security is required? EXAMPLE: The system installed by Estonian tech company Ninja Solutions lets tenants open doors and elevators with their smartphones, and validate their use of rented areas with smartphone biometrics. Security staff have been replaced by CCTV. Navigator Office Center is located at Laeva Street between the Rotermann Quarter and Tallinn’s Old City harbour, Estonia. Tenants include a Bentley Showroom, Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s Tallinn branch, a dental clinic, a private equity company, and a range of advertising firms. Madis Laas, CIO of Ninja Solutions, said that the integration had been planned for the spring, but the Covid-19 pandemic brought it forward. “We can run the transition in 10 days almost remotely with our partners despite the border closures,” he said, adding that the hardware must already be integrated, and the customer needs to be “highly cooperative”. Read More: https://mobilization.io/ 3. Advanced ventilation systems The construction typology of the curtain wall arose with Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace and accelerated in the 20th century. Separating a building’s enclosing wall from its structure enabled an independent development of façade and structure, greater flexibility in design and the incredible lightness of buildings. A main driver for the ongoing development was an increasing awareness for energy saving. Improvements in coatings and double and triple layer insulation glass reduced the thermal losses through the transparent areas of a building. Concepts integrate heating, ventilation, air conditioning, shading, and sound insulation, reducing energy consumption and increasing user comfort. To achieve these facades a pressurised air supply or a ventilation system is used adopting the concept of pressurized multilayer ETFE-foil cushion panels for construction. Different Ventilation Concepts Buffer systems [a] establish a conditioned air system without an interaction. The air conditioning is realised by natural or mechanical ventilation. Extract-Air-Systems [b] use the warm exhaust air of the interior space to increase constantly the temperature of the cavity. A mechanical ventilation system is used for the rooms. Exchange-Air-Systems [c] use natural ventilation within the cavity to guide tempered air into the rooms and extract the used air for a constant exchange process. Source: igsmag.com 4. Smart Crowds control Simulation Software Generate simulations with predictive capacity across a wide range of scenarios and explore how pedestrians and crowds interact with infrastructure. Perform virtual experiments on the design and operation of a site and assess the impact of different levels of pedestrian demand. With sophisticated modelling, analysis, and presentation capabilities for projects ranging from airports to train stations to sports venues, LEGION Simulator helps enhance pedestrian flow and improve safety by allowing the users to test evacuation strategies at any point of the simulations. Scientifically Validated: Based on extensive scientific research of pedestrians’ behaviour in real contexts. Algorithms are patented, and simulation results have been validated against empirical measurements and qualitative studies. Interoperable: Integrate with other applications to understand the interaction among pedestrians and vehicles and individuals' reaction to temperature and other variables. Accurate Reporting: Export and report clear outputs via maps, graphs, and videos to accurately inform stakeholders about crowd density, evacuation, space utilization, social cost, and preferred paths over time. Source: Bentley 5. Social distancing signage UK Department of Transport: Traffic Signs to Support Social Distancing pdf :