Narvalo Urban Mask. Red Dot Winner 21

From a Master thesis of Ewoud Westerduin born *Narvalo *, a start up created together with the Associate Professor of the Department of Design Venanzio Arquilla, incubated at *PoliHub *, Innovation Park & Startup Accelerator of Politecnico di Milano and talent in residence at *Polifactory *.

Narvalo is the perfect expression and application of the third mission of the Politecnico di Milano because, born during a Workshop of the School of Design, has managed to integrate the entire chain of innovation of the Politecnico di Milano and has involved *BLS *, a buotique company of the territory, specialized for over fifty years in the production of disposal for the protection of respiratory tracts and industrial PPE, also born in the Bovisa district of Milan where the Department and the School of Design are based.

Narvalo Urban Mask is a protective mask, with filtering capacity FFP3 R (certified), conceived and designed in 2018 to respond to the issue of environmental pollution in urban environment; after an important dialogue with BLS expertise experiments on materials and technologies performed in Polifactory, Narvalo started in January 2020 the testing phase with more than 50 users.

With the advent of Covid-19, the production process was obviously accelerated in order to be able to make available some protective masks already in July, which were sold out after a few hours from the publication of the online shop.

The Narvalo, composed of a 3D polyester fabric, highly breathable, washable, water-repellent and tear-resistant, has as its strength the filter, co-developed with BLS, that provides protection for the user by filtering 99.9% of pollutants, pollen, particulates, viruses, bacteria and even odors, through the layer of active carbon.

A foundamental part of Narvalo is the beak that contains the exhalation valve, designed to maximize outward flow, reducing the accumulation of heat and moisture inside the mask increasing comfort for the wearer.

Following the release of Covid-19, a new component was developed in addition to the beak: "During the lockdown we talked about selfish masks, therefore equipped with an exhalation valve, and about altruistic masks, without the valve" - says Ewoud Westerduin, Head of Design at Narvalo

« so we decided to make Narvalo Urban Mask an altruistic mask, introducing a cap, called anti-Covid cap, able to block the release of particles during exhalation, protecting not only the users, but also other people.»

Narvalo, in the last few months, has also added an app that allows the users to monitor the quality of the air and especially able to control the level of use of the filter and to alert the user when it is necessary to change it, providing an even greater degree of protection and safety.

In March 2021, a *crowdfunding campain * was launched for the electronic version *Narvalo Urban Active Mask *, which will take place on the Kickstarter platform.

We would like to inform you about the *interview * that Ewoud Westerduin gave to Sky TG 24 for the tv show Progress.

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