LTM BITES: “IT WAS A WAY FOR US TO DO THE RIGHT THING!”

CURA is an innovative initiative to create intensive-care units (ICU) for treating patients with coronavirus. CURA stands for Connected Units for Respiratory Ailments and also “cure” in Latin.

Led by Carlo Ratti, CURA is an open-source project that brings together designers, architects, engineers, medical professionals, military experts and NGOs from across the world. UniCredit also played an important role in the creation of the first CURA prototype, which was built in Milan from a shipping container and is now being used at a hospital in Turin.

“We started with a small team,” explained Carlo, “this team quickly became a few hundred people, then over a thousand. It was great to collaborate with UniCredit to build the first CURA.”

“It’s amazing,” added Carlo, who is a member of UniCredit’s Transformation & Innovation Advisory Board, “because it’s an open source project, we now have have teams all over the world who have taken the drawings and are building units. It’s happening in the UAE, Canada, Italy and the UK.”

UniCredit sponsored the construction of the first CURA pod. “The project was a way for us to help and contribute at the peak of the crisis,” explained Jean Pierre.

“Carlo is a friend of UniCredit and a member of our Advisory Board. The initiative was creative, innovative and extremely effective. Most importantly, it was a way for us to Do the Right Thing.”