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Nanotech Architecture from HWKN Cleans the Air

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Designed by the architectural firm HWKN, this intriguing shape installed at PS1 has a game-changing function for architecture. It actually cleans the air of pollutants.

HWKN is known for their very imaginative architecture that is both eco-visionary and lovely.

Previously we’ve covered their innovative windscraper and the Taipei art museum they made a molehill to contain.

HWKN considers whether architecture could shelter us from more than the environment we’ve lived with for 10,000 years. The idea of what we need shelter from is re-envisioned.

Because this structure cleans air, it protects us from the newer environment we now produce in big cities, that has pollutants like NOx.

A nanospray on the porous nylon fabric literally removes atmospheric pollutants such as NOx from the air.

Treated with titania nanoparticle spray, the truly futuristic fabric is pervious. As air passes through it, pollutants are processed. It is not a filter, that will clog up.

Recycled scaffolding is used for a resource-friendly green construction system for the art piece exhibited at PS1 (named Wendy by the firm).

The spiky shape is to maximize the surface area for the stretched nylon fabric, so the maximum amount of air gets cleaned.

Not only does it clean the air but it shoots out a fresh water mist (presumably best viewed during New York City’s sweltering summer days!)

It is not the first use of this nanotech in architecture, but it is the first use of it on a fabric that air passes through.

The California architect Richard Meier also used titania nanofilm in his Pilgrimage Church in Italy, to keep the dust of Rome off his white facade, and the city of Malmo, in Sweden has used the material in sidewalks to keep them clean.