Hands-free door handle could prevent spread of coronavirus

The design of the device, which can be 3D-printed in under three hours, adapts door handles to be opened without hands

Spotted: London-based architectural designers, Ivo Tedbury and Freddie Hong, have created a 3D-printed device that adapts door handles to be opened without the use of hands, with the aim to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Related: Tracking Innovations Responding to Coronavirus

The pair, who met while studying architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, came up with the design as a way to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. It has been reported that the virus can live on some surfaces for days and is transmitted by human touch.

“To help fight COVID-19, our interactions with the built environment need to go ‘Hands-Free’,” they said. “We’re sharing designs for adaptor kits to reduce physical contact with shared surfaces in buildings.”

The design consists of a curved plastic device that can be attached to fire escape-style pull door handles with cable ties. Instead of using hands to open a door, users can loop their arm through the adaptor and pull the door open.

In addition to releasing the device, Tedbury and Hong have set up Hands-Free Architecture as a provocative platform to encourage other designers to share ways to respond to the crisis.

The design of Open Source handle adaptor is available to download for free on Hands-Free Architecture and comes with a poster that demonstrates how to use the handle.

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