The urban vacuum cleaner that cleans the air and, incidentally, makes jewelry

There's nothing like waking up in the morning, opening the window, and taking a deep breath of air. In a town, it's fine, but since you live in a city, you're going to fill your lungs with carbon monoxide, nitrogen monoxide, sulfur dioxide, methane and a few solid particles in suspension that you almost prefer not to know what they are. And although many of the large western cities are firmly committed to public transport, bike lanes and even the promotion of running as an alternative means of transport to the car, the atmosphere over the heads of urbanites continues to have a brownish gray color. pretty nasty. Proof of this is the photograph of the Madrid sky that dominates this endearing exchange of tweets between two political figures in the capital. In the long term, there will be no choice but to opt for non-polluting energies or for the electric car. However, if we want to alleviate our damaged respiratory systems in the short term, we either go to live in the country or we invent some system to clean the air in the city. And this is where the latest project by Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde comes to our rescue: the Smog Free Tower.

In Roosegaarde's words, it's "the world's biggest pollution vacuum." Indeed, the Smog Free Tower is a device that is dedicated to vacuuming the environment around it and, through a filter system, trap polluting particles by expelling clean air instead. Like a vacuum cleaner but in a big way. To the very big In fact, the first prototype inaugurated in Rotterdam last September measures seven meters high by two meters wide and, according to its creator, cleans 30,000 m3 of air every hour, consumes the same electricity as a coffee maker and is powered by solar energy. . Despite the fact that they have had the financial support of the City Council and the Port of Rotterdam, in addition to the DOEN foundation, specialized in clean energy projects, Studio Roosegaarde needed more money to finance its first tower. To achieve this, and like many other projects in the world, they created an initial request for $54,000 on the Kickstarter funding website. Within two months, they had raised more than $130,000. Those who use this type of campaign on micro-donation pages usually promise some benefit or gift to their "investors", but what the Smog Free Tower can offer is basically intangible: the shared enjoyment of a slice of clean air in the middle of the city. or the satisfaction of having contributed to a better planet. So Roosegaarde decided to build something solid to give away to everyone who put money into his project. Diamonds. Well, they're not real diamonds, but glass cubes made from the cinder bits caught by your vacuum cleaner. After all, real diamonds are also carbon atoms under a lot of pressure. They call it "Pollution Free Jewelry" and claim that if you buy one of their rings or cufflinks, you are donating 1,000 cubic meters of clean air to the city. Daan Roosegaarde considers himself a kind of creative one-man band. He is a designer, artist, engineer and architect. And he is aware that the Smog Free Tower is not the vehicle of salvation for polluted cities, but rather a first physical step and a way of confronting citizens with a real problem by offering a possible solution. A somewhat naïve solution, but of course, implemented with a huge dose of rigor, ingenuity and work. Perhaps for this reason, this project has begun a tour around the world looking for possible places where it serves its purpose, whether tangible or exciting. Also, his goal is very ambitious. He doesn't want to limit himself to building a more or less artistic installation in the middle of Rotterdam, he wants to plant veritable forests of vacuum cleaners in cities that really need it, like Beijing or Mumbai. Megalopolis that wakes up every day with a semi-rigid pollution beret, and that would welcome having clean bubbles for the enjoyment of its citizens. Or from visitors who want to get closer, because a plantation of these towers could become the first decontamination tourist attraction in the world. And while the mercantilist use of such a noble purpose may be distasteful, if companies begin to think they can monetize a cleaner environment, the planet will be saved. Look, the same Roosegaarde is not so naive.