Like a giant vacuum cleaner, the 7-meter tall Smog Free Tower sucks in polluted air from the skies above Rotterdam. But unlike a vacuum cleaner, the building filters it using a patented ion technology and releases bubbles of smog-free air through its vents.
What’s more, the tower also turns some of the smog into jewelry.
The construction is billed as the world’s first Smog Free Tower and was developed by Netherlands-based Studio Roosegarde.
“The technology is actually sort of borrowed from indoor air purifying technology which is used in hospitals,” said Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde. “But we are just up scaling it and building the largest electronic vacuum cleaner in the world.”
The tower runs on wind energy and hoovers 30 cubic meters of polluted air per hour. Smog dust filled with carbon can then be compressed into high-end jewelry like the Smog Free Ring and Smog Free Cufflinks.
Improving the Urban Environment
This is the latest of Roosegaarde’s projects to focus on urban improvement. Other solutions include glow-in-the-dark bike lanes and smart highways that generate electricity and only use lighting when the presence of vehicles is detected.
To drum up interest in the project and to present polluted cities with simple and effective solutions to their pollution problems, the tower will go on a tour. The project’s creators envisage that numerous smog-free towers could be dotted around parks and other public areas to help people breathe cleaner once more.
For more information about the Smog Free Tower, watch the short video below.