In the heart of the Tortona Design District, Dassault Systèmes’ “ Design in the Age of Experience “ event took visitors on a journey of exploration into how design and technology can combine to help develop solutions to issues impacting the health of our world.
Breath/ng’, by “Kengo Kuma and Associates,” formed the central installation of the event.
Celebrating ” Design and Sustainability “, the spiraling installation filters the atmosphere by capturing pollution and cleaning the particles to ultimately generate clean air.
Breath/ng was an air purifying installation able to absorb the equivalent of 90,000 cars worth of pollution per year
Using a cutting edge pollution neutralizing material the globally renowned architect and team created an installation that addressed the growing global issue of air pollution, while aiming to inspire designers from across the world to tackle topics, like climate change, in their own work
The project is made in collaboration with 3Dexperience company Dassault Systèmes and forms part of their ‘ Design in the Age of Experience’ approach, creating sustainable solutions and unique customer experiences that serve a better future.
Combining decades of architectural experience with traditional origami crafts, the Tokyo-based architect utilized the Dessault Systems 3DEXPERIENCE platform to model, test and explore the possibilities of creating networks as well as shapes from a unique, soft and supple material, The Breath.
The sculpture – titled ‘ Breath/ng ’ – was 6 metres tall and comprised 120 hand-folded panels, using 175 square meters of an innovative fabric called “ The Breath Technology’.
The fabric filters the air by capturing the pollution, cleaning the particles and generating clean air.
The powerful aesthetics of Kuma’s air purifying installation offers a great zero-energy solution for contaminated cities.
Developed by Anemotech, this pollution-neutralizing material contains a nano-molecule activated core that separates and absorbs toxic molecules.
The spiral is suspended from a single carbon fiber rod and fixed in place by 46 unique 3D-printed joints, which were made with a HP multi jet fusion printer.
The famous Japanese architect is a long standing partner of Dassault Systèmes.
He also delivered a keynote talk about his goals and vision as an architect.
He spoke about harmony – blending buildings into the environment and sustainability embracing natural materials to bring comfort while tackling global challenges facing our world today.
