“QurE, NCKU Can Help!” National Cheng Kung University Hospital’s construction team is on the way to join the national team! On the 28th, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) unveiled the Taiwan version of its self-developed “Quarantine Units for Recovery, Emergency, and Ecology (QurE)” in 1:1 physical size to the world. The QurE is a modular design that allows for the rapid construction of a quarantine hospital with a combination of negative pressure wards and the ability to plan for the separation of health care and patient lines, providing a safe, healthy and high quality environment during epidemic preparedness. The entire development and design process of the QurE, from concept to physical construction, is publicly available on the website and is available for download worldwide.

National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) unveiled the Taiwan version of its self-developed “Quarantine Units for Recovery, Emergency, and Ecology (QurE)” to the world.

In order to make the best use of time, the NCKU R&D team organized a cross-medical, architectural, and engineering R&D team in two weeks to take practical actions and join forces with industry and academia to build the world’s best quarantine units for recovery, emergency, and ecology, hoping to gather Taiwan’s professional knowledge and provide reference for countries in need around the world. The results of this research and development will not only help Taiwan’s epidemic prevention efforts to be deployed ahead of time and improve the quality of the quarantine environment, but also share the open data and modular design with the world, proving once again that Taiwan is capable of contributing to global epidemic prevention and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a circular economy and innovative industry model.

The Mayor of Tainan, Huang, Wei-che, accompanied by President of NCKU, Su Hui-zhen, President of National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Shen Meng-ru, and the QurE design team, entered the hospital room to experience the QurE. According to President Su, “Advanced planning” means to think ahead to what is potentially needed. NCKU is proud to share its expertise and wisdom with the world, demonstrating that intellectuals take on and complete social challenges and look forward to a better world in the future. President Shen pointed out that QurE is a result of the collective efforts of medical, artistic, architectural and material talents, and is also a demonstration of the university’s responsibility.

 The “Quarantine Units for Recovery, Emergency, and Ecology (QurE)” is the result of the collective efforts of medical, artistic, architectural, and material talents.

In the speech, Mr. Huang said that the The “Quarantine Units for Recovery, Emergency, and Ecology” improves many of the deficiencies of the existing sheltered hospitals, and NCKU will put its academic strength into use, demonstrating the unlimited potential of Taiwan”. The epidemic changes are unpredictable, and in case there are new changes, Taiwan will not only do better but also be a world leader.

The QurE prototype house exhibition will be open to the public until May 11, after which it will be turned into a work station for the NCKU’s campus project, a model of today’s circular economy. According to architect Zhang Ching-hwa, the head designer of the Bio-Architecture Formosana, the building materials used in each component of the QurE are rented from the owner, erected, and then dismantled and transported back to the owner at the end of the mission so that they can be reused in the future. The cost of the construction is about NT$8,000 to NT$20,000 a ping (about 3.3 square meters).

Architect Zhang Ching-hwa, head designer of Bio-Architecture Formosana, stressed that the QurE is a model of today’s circular economy.

The project is led by President Su of NCKU, with a co-founding team consisting of President Shen of NCKU Hospital, Dean Zheng Tai-sheng of the College of Planning and Design, and Bio-Architecture Formosana, to create “Quarantine Units for Recovery, Emergency, and Ecology” that can be deployed from a quarantine station to an emergency hospital. The most important feature of this design is that it can be rapidly assembled into a negative pressure isolation ward in a single-occupancy suite, and the air intake and ventilation of the ward are analyzed by computer and physical simulation to avoid cross-contamination among patients. Compared to the existing mobile cabin hospitals in the world, the safety of the hospital is greatly improved and the privacy of the patients is also protected.

Single suite negative-pressure isolation ward, which is much safer than the existing cubicle hospitals worldwide.

The team also carefully distinguishes cleanliness, buffering, and contamination according to infection control principles, and sets up alcohol hand-washing points between entry and exit areas to separate medical and patient movement. According to Dr. Shen, President of NCKUH, the integrated infection control strategy and the plan of movement can not only effectively protect the health and safety of health care workers, but also prevent cross-infection and protect other patients at the same time, which is very heartwarming for frontline health care worker. Preventing infections is like fighting a war, ensuring zero infections among healthcare workers is the only way to prevent frontline workers from getting sick and suffering. Preventing hospital-acquired infections is like building a strong fence for the hospital, which is the last line of defense to protect public health.

Considering the urgency of epidemic prevention, the materials and dimensions of each space unit of the QurE are readily available from existing materials and can be constructed in three days on average. The design also takes into account Taiwan’s hot and humid climate. The base is elevated and the roof is a traditional pitched roof, which helps to dissipate heat, insulate heat and reduce energy consumption.

The materials and dimensions of each space unit are readily available from existing materials and can be built in an average of 3 days.

The current emergency quarantine hospitals can be divided into three main categories in various countries: 1) temporary fever screening stations set up in tents; 2) using large stadiums to set up large bed groups to accommodate infected patients; 3) acquiring existing open space to build a large medical isolation facility, commonly known as a mobile cabin hospital. There are many problems with these current practices, including the temporary construction of a crude space that is too hot and stuffy, lack of toilets, clustering of infections, lack of privacy for patients, and threats to the health and safety of health care workers.

 The “Quarantine Units for Recovery, Emergency, and Ecology (QurE)” 1:1 full-sized demonstration space can be built quickly to meet the needs of advanced quarantine deployment.

While the global epidemic is still in a critical state, the “Mobile Emergency Quarantine Hospital Prototype” took only two weeks from concept design, quarantine lines, environmental simulation, modeling to the completion of a 1:1 full-scale demonstration space, satisfying the need for advanced deployment of epidemic prevention and improving many of the problems associated with various types of emergency quarantine hospitals around the world today.

NCKU is the only university in Taiwan that has both a medical and architectural faculty. President Su said that NCKU has the responsibility to contribute to Taiwan’s epidemic prevention efforts. Taiwan can integrate the medical team of NCKU, the sound public health system, and the innovative architectural design and construction engineering capability, with Taiwan’s wisdom, to provide reference for the countries in need globally and let the world know that “NCKU Can Help”!

(Edited by Meng, Qing-ci, Photos by Liu, Zi-duan, Chen, Zheng-ming, Images by Bio-Architecture Formosana)

QurE—QurE is pronounced cure in English, meaning “Quarantine Units for Recovery”, Emergency, and Ecology.

The QurE prototype design website: https://qure.gs.ncku.edu.tw