Voiceover (00:04):

Welcome to the Architects Possibility Podcast with David Bradley of Blueprint For Living Coaching. Each week we connect with design professionals, just like you, who are using their creativity, leadership, and passion to make the world a better place in ways both big and small, every day. Now, here’s the host of the Architect’s Possibility Podcast, architect and executive coach, David Bradley.

DB (00:26):

Good afternoon! This is David Bradley with the Architects Possibility Podcast. And I have the great pleasure today of speaking with Lira Luis, Principal of Atelier Lira Luis, Limited. Lira is a 2020 fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and most recently elevated to fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. Lira, welcome and congratulations on the most recent honor.

LL (00:55):

Yes. Thank you very much. I’m really, really excited to be here to be part of your podcast. Thanks for inviting me.

DB (01:02):

You bet. Your firm, I noticed, encompasses a really broad range of sectors and typologies and focuses on merging architecture with scientific research and innovation. And it’s that last point that inspired me to reach out to you because when we first talked, you were taking the circumstances of the pandemic and kind of making lemonade out of lemons in a way. And there’s a particular project that you’ve been working on that I thought would be really great to share with our listeners and that is a pandemic helmet. So why don’t we start off by talking about sort of the origin of the idea. I know you’ve worked on so many different projects, but there’s one in particular, the Leapfrog Project that kink of got this all rolling.

LL (01:56):

Yeah. So what happened is when the pandemic was announced around March, it was also a week before that when I was just in London to receive the fellowship for the Royal Institute of British Architects. And one of the projects that I submitted for that was the Living Ball for the Leapfrog Project that addresses the plight, the housing plight of extreme disaster survivors. So when I came back of course everybody was put on shelter in place. And then the only time you could go out really is to go to the store, you know, to get your needs. And I, the first time I went to the store, to the grocery store, I was already wearing a mask, even though it wasn’t required. So I just knew this by observing, I traveled a lot observing whenever I traveled to like say Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, whenever there’s a flu, just regular flu, they wear a mask immediately. So I wore that. However, it was my first time doing that at a store. And I was asking where the alcohol was located because I wanted to stock up because I couldn’t find any of that. And of course it was in short supply, but I had difficulty speaking, like meaning I was speaking under the mask and the sales representative couldn’t understand me and she couldn’t quite hear me. And so then I went back home, you know, thinking, what about the people who are deaf? Or what about those, like me who have difficulty expressing or speaking underneath the mask or, you know, it’s the, the mask wearing is a contentious subject, right? People don’t like to wear the mask at that time when I wore the mask, it was a homemade mask, meaning I folded like it was a tablecloth or napkin and then I just put like rubber bands at the end. So it was really thick and it was, I have to admit it was difficult to breathe during that. And that’s how I, you know, thought about a solution. This, you know, this mask, first of all, is not designed for somebody who has difficulty, who is deaf, deaf mute because they need your movement, your mouth, your lips, that’s how they read what you’re saying. Um reading. And the other thing is, yeah, you have people who would have difficulty wearing one because of the breathing issues. And so then I looked at a way, I was thinking, what could be a possible solution for this because it’s not really designed for everyone. It’s not a universal design. And those surgical mask designs are really intended for the hospital. When you are wearing one people, you know, have this perception, they immediately associate it with the hospital, do somebody is sick when you’re wearing it. So that’s the thing. Also of course, you know, you’re touching on social justice issues here when people don’t see your entire face, you’re hiding it. And especially if you’re, you know, like say a BIPOC or black indigenous person of color, people of color there’s that immediate, that instant suspicion, you know, like if you’re hiding your face, they can’t see the entire identity. And so then this needs to be addressed. And I looked at my project coming fresh from London, submitting the Living Ball. And I said, wait a minute, you know, this dome, this looks like a dome. It’s a geodesic dome inspired by Buckminster Fuller as a geodesic. I could actually scale this down cause I looked at it and, and structure-wise, you know, when you scale it up or down, it doesn’t really change. It will still hold up. Now the issue here is how do you analyze the indoor air quality? You know, the air coming in the dome and the air coming out because you’re inhaling oxygen, you’re exhaling carbon dioxide. Right? So then I use that concept and this, I learned from Franklin Lloyd Wright’s “Organic Principles of Architecture” is the natural air flow. And I used that and reimagined the living ball into a pandemic helmet, which I could actually share with you right now. So yeah. So, so for those unable to see this, so here’s the challenge, the universal protection for COVID-19 pandemic is right now, the face mask. So while it functions to prevent the transmission of the Coronavirus in airborne droplets its form poses challenges, and this has already been proven by science that the COVID-19 droplets are transmitted or, you know, it’s, it’s airborne, right? It’s aerosol. Okay. So the design, what are the, what are the challenges with wearing a facemask? So it’s an inaccessible design. People who are deaf mute, can’t lip read with the face mask. So it’s also, it prevents natural breathing. Some people who don’t like wearing a mask complain about that. And then it triggers preconceptions. You know, we’re dealing with social justice, as I mentioned earlier. So again, inspired by the geodesic dome and then the “Principles of Organic Architecture”. I looked at the face and I looked at, you know, superimposed on a human head, the geodesic. So then I analyzed it, when you inhale, I have arrows here, the image on the left, when you inhale you’re inhaling oxygen and it needs to be cleaned free from the aerosol of COVID-19. So I have strategically placed HEPA filters at the base where you inhale oxygen, you know, near the nostrils. Then when you exhale that you’re exhaling carbon dioxide, and that needs to be filtered too, because you don’t know if you’re asymptomatic for COVID-19. So when you exhale, that’s already hot air. So it’s like a building. So it’s like this chimney stack effect, which I learned in Franklin Lloyd Wright’s “Organic Principles”, so that hot air rises up. So then I placed HEPA filters also at the top, right, like right near the head or the top of your head. And so then that’s how I developed this pandemic helmet. And, you know, I made a study, I actually use my own head as, you know, the, this size, you know, adjusting where I should put the filters and then where I should put the opening or how big the openings at the bottom, so I could fit it in my head. So there are several images that I’m showing you. And for those who aren’t able to see this images, this will be made available online with a link.

DB (09:51):

We’ll put it, we’ll put the link to this PDF in the show notes. So if anybody wants to see the PDF and these, the images of the model and the schematics they’ll be able to access that.

LL (10:03):

So just imagine a transparent pandemic helmet with a built in HEPA filter strategically placed along the breathing and speaking planes. So including the crown, which surrounds the geodesic polyhedron, it protects from virus carrying air droplets or those in aerosols. So you can see facial expressions, too. So somebody who’s deaf-mute would…that would be an aid in communication while it filters inhaled and exhaled air through natural cross ventilation and stack effect. So as you can see, these are all based on knowledge of architecture and how air ventilation comes in and out of buildings, but on a smaller scale. And I found that the geodesic dome was the ideal form for that. You could scale it down. I mean, you can’t scale down a high rise building and put it over your head, right. You could make a geodesic dome work for it.

DB (11:06):

Very futuristic looking too, you know, I think about just the other day, the astronauts coming back from, from space, from the SpaceX vehicle, like it’s looks sort of like a space helmet of sorts, but I think it’s classier.

LL (11:23):

I’m glad that you mentioned that because if you imagine it, so you mentioned the astronauts, they are in a harsh environment, and this is there’s no oxygen when you’re in outer space with the presence of the COVID-19 endemic, that’s aerosol, our air now is actually a harsh environment. So you see that comparison there. So you need really a helmet. Like this is a one, you know, I’m a one stop shop. You know, you don’t, some people are selling the idea that, okay, you have to wear a face mask. And then, you know, you have to wear goggles because you have to protect the openings for your eyes. But then, I’m thinking why wear multiple things, just wear one thing with one goal to make it easier. But the comparison also is what you described as the astronauts are the environment in outer space, like I mentioned is a harsh environment. So, you know, the air levels, there, there’s no oxygen, you have to be in a suit and you have to have an oxygen tank. And if you think about that lateral thinking on earth right now, this is a global thing. The pandemic it’s aerosol meaning the air that we breathe is no longer healthy or safe. So that’s the other inspiration. And then of course, if I design something, I need to be able to be confident wearing it. So here’s an example of me wearing it and I did test it out. In the first trial production, I walked around Lakeshore Drive and it does… To see how it works, how it fits, how it moves, how the wind hits it and that type of stuff, all inspired by the knowledge of architecture and the principles of organic architecture.

DB (13:22):

It’s, it’s really quite beautiful. It’s very compelling actually. What would the, what would the parallels be between the Living Ball and the helmet itself? Like, I know that in terms of size, that could scale scaled down, but were there any parallels between the use of the helmet and the use of the living ball?

LL (13:45):

Yeah. So in the Living Ball, it was intended to protect the extreme natural disaster survivors from the elements. So the harsh environment of like say the air, the wind during a typhoon. And so then on a smaller scale at the level of the pandemic helmet, you’re now protecting the human from exactly, you know, from literally the air you breathe or the room when you’re inside a room or an interior space, you’re protecting the human from extreme harsh environments of, you know, the suspension of the COVID-19 on the, in the air.

DB (14:32):

Got it. There was something I was thinking about the Living Ball. And again, for our listeners, I’m going to put links to the Leapfrog Project and your other projects in the show notes, the Living Ball was also not only just a shelter, but you could expand upon that by providing WIFI access and additional services. And I’m wondering if that could also be done with this helmet as well?

LL (14:59):

So with this helmet, I think where the Living Ball, as you mentioned, we did provide WIFI access in the way I explored initially the use… Instead of charging those solar, there’s a small solar cell that I strategically placed at the connections of the geodesic dome. And I used bioluminescent plankton to power that, and then, of course the combination of the sun and that powers it. And then we produced the WIFI that way, or at least powered it. So there, it still sends, it still receives transmission from a tower, a tower source. So with a pandemic helmet, the HEPA filters strategically placed at the breathing plane and also to have that chimney effect or the stack effect to release the carbon dioxide that is also filtered. So that is the one that’s also an additional feature. So it’s not just, you know, a helmet to protect you from droplets or spray aerosol spray, but also to filter in and out the air that you inhale and then to filter the air that you exhale. So it’s the equivalent. Those filters are the equivalent of the N 95 masks. So I think it’s a complete protection because your head, the entire head is protected from aerosols, which are, you know, could be microns in size or diameter. So you can’t really see it. And so then it protects your head. Everything literally,

DB (16:46):

It’s so exciting. I mean, I think this is one of those places where architects bring such a unique creativity to their surrounding environment. What I know, there are several other projects that you’ve worked on similarly, like really finding something, getting curious about it and starting to bring science and technology into the mix. Where do you get your inspiration from?

LL (17:11):

So from nature. So I learned this I lived at Taliesin and Taliesin West for three years, and this was more than 20 years ago, whatever that really had the lasting impression on how I see things. So Frank Lloyd Wright was mentioning you don’t look at things, but you look INTO things, you see things, and that’s where you would get your inspiration, and this would be in nature. And sometimes it’s also a matter of trying to find…to help other people. And that’s really at the heart of what I do. You know, the inspiration really here is like I mentioned, it was also coming back from London, talking about the Living Ball and then, you know, coming into the pandemic, going to the store, experiencing firsthand what the struggles are and then trying to find a solution, connecting them. And if you think about it, it’s really an exercise on lateral thinking because you, you aren’t connecting the dots, you know, from a large scale architecture, how is it possible that, you know, it could be connected to a solution at a scale, a small scale, you know, at the human scale. So that’s where the inspiration is coming from.

DB (18:41):

What I know, that you recently were elevated to Fellowship of the Royal Society of the Arts. And I’m curious, what inspired you to…what compelled you to pursue that fellowship?

LL (18:55):

Fellowship came on the heels of my election as a 2020 Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. So I wasn’t even really planning on it. And then there was…I asked for advice from a Chicago architect, JJ Tang, who is himself a double fellow, or recipient of a double fellowship, I think with the SAME, The Society of American Military Engineers, and then with the American Institute of Architects. And so I asked him for some insider advice and what should I do? I received a nomination for the fellowship for the Royal Society of the Arts and what is the value of a second fellowship? I’m content, you know, quite frankly, I was already content and happy with one, so two would be a bonus, but it wasn’t really something that I was working towards, you know, intentionally. And so he gave me this advice. He said, you know, it depends on what your focus is. And so then I studied the Royal Society of the Arts and what they were about, and what got me interested really is, you know, and it really ticked my box when they said that they were the first to use the term sustainability in the context of the environment, in a journal that they published. And I can’t remember what year it was, but it was sometime in the 1980s when sustainability wasn’t really mainstream yet, nobody was really thinking long-term about that enormous supply of oil. And, you know, there was an abundance mentality in that area, not renewable energy. And so then if that, you know, and I’m passionate about sustainability in the environmental context, but then I said, okay, I share this value with them. And that’s what made me decide to pursue it. And, and, you know, I was actually… It didn’t matter what the outcome would be. Whether I get elected as fellow or not, I just wanted, because of that shared value of sustainability, I just wanted to submit and see if my work… It’s like a litmus test for my work, because that has been also central to my work is sustainability. And true enough, you know, they agreed, they said, okay. Yes. You know, you share our values and this, the projects that you submitted met the criteria of what we’re looking for in a fellow. And so I was elected.

DB (21:51):

That’s so wonderful. And it sounds like they’re just, there’s great alignment between what they stand for and what you work towards. I think that’s important.

DB (22:03):

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And you’re in great company – for those who don’t know, I was doing some reading up on the Royal Society of the Arts. And they’ve been around for a little while and you’re sharing company with Benjamin Franklin, and Carl Marx and I… Who else? There’s, there’s a whole…

LL (22:23):

Stephen Hawking.

DB (22:23):

Stephen Hawking as well. That’s right. So…

LL (22:26):

Oh, my favorite was really what got, what caught my attention too was actually two people were FRSA or Fellows of the Royal Society of the Arts – Benjamin Franklin was – who is actually my favorite founding father and Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize Laureate for chemistry and physics and I think three – don’t quote me on that. So I have more than one, more than one Nobel Prize recipient. So Marie Curie – these are the inspirations cause I do experimentation in architecture. And I look up to Marie Curie, when I saw the list of their past fellows, you know that okay. Yeah. That, yeah. I want to be aligned with these people. And the other thing too, is the inventor of the worldwide web right now. You know, we’re, we’re leveraging that technology through our zoom meeting and podcasts. The inventor of that. Mr. Berners, I think is his name, based in London. He’s also a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. And so I think that’s good company. I thought that if I make it, if I got selected, then it would really be an honor.

DB (23:45):

Well, it’s great to see architects representing at that level of society as well. So really super. What’s next for you and your firm and your projects. What directions do you see yourself heading?

LL (23:58):

So right now and I started this in 2004 and it’s called the virtual practice on blockchain. Okay. So in 2004 is when I established my firm. And at that time the virtual practice didn’t exist yet. However, I do have a virtual office. In fact, I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, and I established my LLC for the firm in Las Vegas. And then I had a virtual office where it’s like a coworking space, you know, the concept of coworking space in New York City. And so this was 2004. And then while also working for another firm, I don’t know if that, by that time, you know, they would call it moonlighting. But I…there was no conflict of interest there because I was doing completely different projects from the firm I was working for and also my own projects. And at the heart of that, I was already addressing homelessness. So that first project was, I established that 2004, my firm where my first project was the entry that I submitted for the Metropolis magazine’s next generation competition. And this was the portable transient shelter pods intended for the homeless in a specific segment of society in Asia, the seafarers. And so then but I already dabbled on the concept of the virtual practice there because of this multi-location, you know, really spread out. You know, my mentors at that time were really surprised at what I was doing. They were saying you’re crazy. Or, you know, you’re scattered, you’re all over the place. However, like I, and I think back, you know, the firm still exists from the time established in 2004. So it’s still here, but I moved to Chicago. So I brought it with me. I just transferred, you know, the legal aspect of it. You know, of course you have to refile for every state. However, the concept is still there, but now I added an element of blockchain and what is blockchain? Blockchain. People are confused by this. They always associate it with Bitcoin, you know, the online currency right now, and some were skeptical about it. And when people ask, what is blockchain and how does it work? And I would say it works great. You know, and, and the reason I say this is there is a, they believe that Bitcoin or blockchain was invented by this Japanese pseudonym, some sort of citizen, but they were saying that it was already, it’s actually a collection of people. They were speculating. It could be bill Gates. It could be Elon Musk in a collection of like really strong minds or really intellectuals. But Satoshi Nakamoto is that pseudonym invented blockchain and it was intended for coin and blockchain is actually a ledger. So imagine your filing cabinet and it stores all the data, but it’s secure. So there’s like a padlock, like a lock system. And the transaction is also secure, meaning there’s always like a confirmation of a transaction and you could track it for every transaction in every network. So right now we’re in Zoom, right? Or we’re communicating, our transaction is recorded. There’s a clear recording of this, the history, you could go back to it when we add another attendee or another speaker to this Zoom meeting, then the history of when we added that person. And then the login time, the IP address, all of that is part of that ledger that’s being recorded. And you could see how this could very well be applicable to architecture, and which is why I’m promoting this and why this is what’s next for me is really, trying to educate architects about blockchain technology and how it applies to virtual practices. So I’m not sure if you have read the news like one, when the pandemic hit around April, May, June architects automatically switched to working from home and you went to working from home. And then the systems where these employees, or you have contract workers, the employees, their systems at home are not secure because their broadband, you know, their internet connections are just like a residential internet connection. And it’s susceptible to cyber-attacks, which, you know, architects or not only architects, but any business really is not really thinking about because…okay, I’m using my broadband at home, my internet connection at home. I know I have a firewall or I installed some antivirus software. So I’m protected. But really no one’s protected until you really have that cybersecurity in place. You know, whether that could be software or right now, there is a, there’s an availability of consultants. Helping architects make sure that their systems, office systems are, you know, are not susceptible to cyber-attacks because I read, actually in London, big name firms were actually subject to cyber-attacks during the pandemic. And it could be in the form of email hacks. Like somebody can spoof your email address and then send emails on your behalf, which could be really a real threat to the reputation, the business reputation of a firm or a business or a brand. And in blockchain technology, you prevent all of that from happening because of the added level of security and the added level of trust that once you’re in blockchain, once your system or your files are within that blockchain network, then you’re really protected because everything is encrypted. You could trace every single second from the login to the log out and every IP address who’s ever logged in there. And it’s never erased. So I don’t know if you’re familiar, not sure if you’re familiar with the it systems in an architecture firm or even in a business, you know, when you’re in an, in an office network, and you can like…say, for example, you have a drawing and BIM file, a CAD file. Sometimes when the computer crashes, you know, you’re working as a teamwork, you know, multiple people working on one file, right? You can’t really trace, you could go back and search the servers from the last saved file and recover that, but you can’t really track who was the last person to log in, or maybe a good login, you know, from the main system, but from the drawing level, what I’m talking about is at the drawing level, who’s the last person to log in. And what was the last command or what was the last task that was performed on the BIM model or on the drawing. And with a blockchain, you could do that. So nobody has really, m haven’t seen a software that has really explored this in detail, but this is, these are the potentials of how blockchain can really help a virtual practice. And, you know, from the business level to the contract documents level, and even to the networking level, the it aspect of it, or the architecture, the other side of the architecture of architecture, you know, how we confuse, you know, the it architects and the building. I think this is the intersection of all those.

DB (32:33):

Wow. It sounds like a great opportunity for both security, accountability management. Be really interesting to see where you take this.

LL (32:43):

Yes, you’re absolutely correct. So it’s all those things that you described.

DB (32:47):

That’s so cool. I’m going to wrap things up with a question for you. What’s what do you want your legacy to be?

LL (32:55):

So legacy is we all want to make an impact in the world. And for me is, you know, I think my purpose, it’s more about my purpose and that is helping people I’m in the business of helping people. And if I could use architecture or what I know from architecture or, you know, the talent, because I’m in the industry to help people, then I think I would have made a lasting and impressionable legacy for the next generation, for our current generation and for the future generation.

DB (33:39):

Lira, I think you’re already well on your way, given everything that you’ve accomplished so far in your career and everything that you’re up to. I really, I want to thank you for spending some time with us sharing about your pandemic helmet, which is really exciting, and again, we’ll provide a link to the PDF with some images of that for our listeners. Congratulations again, on all of the accolades, looking forward to having another conversation with you once the next thing comes up.

LL (34:12):

Yes. Thank you very much for having me. It’s a pleasure being part of your show.

Voiceover (34:20):

Thanks for joining us this week on the Architects Possibility Podcast with architect and executive coach David Bradley, produced by Blueprint For Living Coaching. If you found value in the show, be sure to give us a rating on iTunes and share it with an architect you know. Remember to tune in next week for our next episode of the Architects Possibility Podcast. Until then, keep celebrating the possibility in your life and make it a wonder-filled day!