COVID-19  

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $4.5 million in funding for training programs for professionals (firefighters, first responders, and safety officials) who interact with distributed energy resources, including solar energy systems, storage systems, "smart" building technologies, and electric vehicles. Projects in this funding opportunity will focus on developing, testing, and disseminating educational materials.

In an editorial featured in the Boston Globe, founding principal architect and executive director Michael Murphy of MASS Design, Boston, details how architecture, if deployed as an active agent in the fight against COVID-19, might "recapture trust over our public spaces and solve problems. The spatial choices we make today, during this emergency, might make or break our ability to survive both this crisis and the next one."