Paris installs hundreds of free hand sanitizer stations around the city
There have been a lot of off-the-wall design concepts geared toward keeping public spaces germ-free as cities reopen. Many are good examples of design innovation, but the City of Love has gone a step further and taken one to actual IRL implementation.
Starting on May 11, Paris partnered with advertising company JCDecaux to add hand sanitizer dispensers to the walls at 1,500 bus stations and 435 public restrooms—or three-quarters of bus shelters and all public toilets.
The dispensers, created by French designer Patrick Jouin, look similar to a water bottle filling station that you’d find in an airport, with a push-button spout and a drain below it. Each dispenser can hold about 1.3 gallons of hand sanitizer, allowing for roughly 3,300 applications apiece. That’s about 6.5 million doses of hand sanitizer available to newly out-of-doors Parisians so they can disinfect on the go. A dedicated JCDecaux team will clean and refill the dispensers, according to a press release from the company.
The project went from idea to reality in just five weeks. The team went with a button that users can press with the back of their hand rather than a hands-free system, due to the project’s quick turnaround and because hands-free devices require more technical maintenance, a Patrick Jouin studio spokesperson explained. There are 320 dispensers currently installed around the city; the rest will be active by the end of June, the spokesperson continued.
Paris began reopening under restricted guidelines two weeks ago. Shops have started to reopen, and people can return to work, though table service in restaurants and access to public parks remains limited.
While the hand sanitizer dispensers are currently only in Paris, other cities in France and abroad are interested in them, according to JCDecaux, although the company did not disclose which cities.
