According to the World Health Organisation, 99% of people living in urban areas globally are exposed to air quality exceeding safe daily limits.
Indoor air purifiers built for use inside homes and offices can help to counteract pollution when we’re inside, but Mumbai-based architecture firm Studio Symbiosis has developed a solution designed for public spaces.
Enter Verto, a 5.5m tall tower designed with the aid of a computer to optimise the air purification surface area, thereby maximising the amount of clean air it outputs. Studio Symbiosis claim that this is up to 600,000 cubic metres of air per day, while also heavily reducing levels of nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter.
The twisted geometry of the tower helps to create a difference in temperature and pressure between the air coming in and the air going out, resulting in a loop that pulls air towards the tower. Once pulled in, a filtering membrane removes fine airborne particulates before exhaling the cleansed air. The membrane is replaced every six to nine months. A fully modular design allows the concrete panels to be shipped in flat pack form ready to be assembled on site.
The computer modelling used to help create the design also resulted in a curved, elegant form and lattice pattern that’s also aesthetically pleasing – a perfect example of functional but beautiful public sculpture for placemaking projects in city centres or urban parks.
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