What if building could work like a vacuum cleaner?

Air pollution is a part of daily discussions in today's life whether on social media, newspaper or among groups.

A lot of ways have developed by engineers to combat pollution. But pollution is increasing at alarming rate.

Air pollution in India is estimated to kill 1.5 million people every year . It is the fifth largest killer in India. India has the world's highest death rate from chronic respiratory diseases and asthma, according to the WHO In Delhi, poor quality air irreversibly damages the lungs of 2.2 million or 50 percent of all children.

According to WHO survey of 1600 world cities , Delhi is the worst of any major city in the world . Delhi's pollution level has reached a hazardous level .

So if buildings could play a active role in pulling in pollutants from the sky , then why not?

Atleast we will be able to breath fresh air.

Carmen Trudell , assistant professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's school of architecture and founder of Both Landscape and Architecture has developed breathe bricks.

The Breathe Brick is designed to form a part of a building's regular ventilation system, with a double-layered facade of the specialist bricks on the outside, complemented by a standard internal layer providing insulation. At the center of the Breathe Brick's function is cyclone filtration, an idea borrowed from modern vacuum cleaners, which separates out the heavy pollutant particles from the air and drops them into a removable hopper at the base of the wall.

The system is composed of two key parts: concrete bricks, and a recycled plastic coupler, which both helps to align bricks and creates a route from the outside into the brick's hollow center. The concrete bricks themselves feature a faceted surface which helps to direct airflow into the system, and a separate cavity for inserting steel structure.

The Breathe Brick can function with both mechanical and passive ventilation systems, as the brick simply delivers filtered air into the wall plenum; this air can then be delivered to the building interior through mechanical equipment or through trickle vents driven by passive systems such as stack ventilation.

In windtunnel tests, the system was found to filter 30% of fine particles (such as airborne pollutants) and 100% of coarse particles such as dust. As the entire system is relatively inexpensive, the Trudell posits the Breathe Brick as a way to lower pollution levels in developing countries, where rapid expansion of industry and less stringent environmental regulations often cause problems.

Source: archdaily.com

#BreatheBrick #airpollution #vacuumcleaner #ventilationsystem