Designing face masks is not as easy as it seems

What is required is clarity, without bickering, but with the serious expertise of our profession. To design is to understand and to study. To find solutions that are not improvised, in spite of the urgency. It is to share correct information, know-how from different fields, experience, before picking up your pencil.

Understanding the issues is the first task of designers

What are the parameters of filtering efficiency that are fundamental to design a functional mask in hygienic terms? The Polytechnic has clarified this: surgical masks and PPE devices (the so-called FFP2 and FFP3) have to be made with 2-3 layers of material – usually TNT, a non-woven fabric with a polymer base – which acts as a mechanical filter (to 10 microns of diameter) and as an electrostatic filter to capture the smaller particles.

There are also parameters of ergonomics, wearability, usability. The way we wear, use and remove masks has a strong impact on their efficiency: the gesture of putting them on or removing them puts us at risk if it is not done properly. Wearing a mask is not an action to be taken for granted, above all in the Western world: it deprives us of an expressive part of the face. It is a human and emotional aspect doctors and nurses have experienced and indicated, as in the care of Covid-19 patients in isolation.

Then there are issues connected with washing, sanitizing and the possibility of sterilizing filters, to limit the consumption of disposable materials over the long term. The circular economics and environmental impact of these devices are open questions: from one-use masks, indispensable in certain situations, to pollution from microplastics (the microfibers of polypropylene), for example.

The challenge for industrial designers is therefore an open one: Milan has been badly hit by Covid-19, but that also makes it fertile territory for creativity and innovation, which will be need to start again. Much design work still has to be done for the Covid-19 emergency. Let’s do our best, without looking for easy shortcuts. Trusting in the positive force of design.