These Architectural Designs Actually Fight Air Pollution

August 8, 2014- In urban settings, the way a building is designed can impact the quality of air around it. But here are six designs that interactively make the air cleaner in the process. From giant filters to pollution-fighting sidewalks, these buildings and structures offer a breath of fresh air amid harsh fumes:

1. Manuel Gea Gonzalez Hospital (Mexico City) and 2. Palazzo Italia (Milan) -- Both structures use a chemical coating that breaks down air pollutants. A titanium dioxide coating can break down pollutants like nitrogen oxide. When the titanium dioxide is exposed to light, its electrons interact with water to release pollutant-busting free radicals. These radicals break down any pollutant particulate on the coated panels and attack airborne particles, too. Its designers say the titanium dioxide can neutralize the effects of 1,000 cars each day.

The Palazzo Italia is still being constructed, but the special tiles on the Manuel Gea Gonzalez Hospital are cleaning the air around the building already.

3. Hyper Filter SkyScraper – The pine cone-shaped tower is covered with pipes that suck in pollutants and greenhouse gases and expel concentrated oxygen.

4. Air-filtering billboard (Lima, Peru) -- Engineers invented a billboard that tackles air pollution. Located at a busy intersection, the billboard sucks in 3.5 million cubic feet of air per day. That air is mixed with water in a heat-controlled system that removes dust, metal and stone particles before sending the cleaned air back out. The billboard's benefits reach about five city blocks, and the system runs as much energy as an emergency generator would to power the bare essentials of your house for a day.

5. Utopian Skyvillage (Los Angeles) -- It only exists in design, but it could have an incredible impact on social and environmental life in Los Angeles. The proposed village aims to promote a car-free lifestyle in a city known for its horrid gridlock by uniting neighborhoods of L.A. above ground.

6. Propagate Skyscraper -- What if a skyscraper could build itself out of pollution? That's what the proposed Propagate Skyscraper would do. It starts off as a scaffolding grid made from a hypothesized material that builds off carbon pollutants. As the structure grows, its pollution-fighting capacity increases and it becomes habitable.

To read more click here.

Carnow Conibear and Associates is a demonstrated leader in the occupational and environmental health professions since 1975. To find out more, click here or call us at (800) 860-4486.