Flow Air Purifying System
2017
Flow is an indoor air care system for city dwellers. The system is consisted of a plant based air purifier and
an air quality monitor.
Big cities and high traffic.
In big cities like Los Angeles–indoor air quality can be five to ten times worse due to heavy buildings that are built next to high traffic freeways. The image to the top taken from an LA Times article in 2010 shows the density of Los Angeles’ population who lives near high traffic area. Each dot represents 10 people living with 1,000 feet of the freeway. In some areas of Los Angeles’ people are advised to not even open their windows to maintain their indoor air quality. Home has always been the place where people spend the majority of their time and we should regard indoor air quality with the same attention as we do outdoor air pollution.
Natural source of air purification that also treats you emotionally.
Although all plants have benefit, there are three plants that are known for cleaning air more than others according to NASA’s clean air study and Meattle’s experiment; Areca Palms, Snake Plants and Money plants. Bill Wolverton, a retired civilian scientist for NASA, found the air- cleaning capacity of houseplants can be improved by increasing air circulation to the roots of the plants, where symbiotic microorganisms help make the substances culled from air bioavailable. Plants not only have all these health benefit but also increase work productivity and treats your state of mind as well.
01 MONITOR
Flow monitor is a home air quality monitor. It has sensors to detect temperature, humidity, dust, CO2 level and other volatile organic compounds. It is also capable of communicating and sending data to the Flow purifier and the app. Flow monitor is the brain of the system. The form was inspired by the required feature which was air intake ventilation. I translated this feature into the most basic and logical pattern. The cube form was designed to act as a pure object that can blend into anyone’s home and fit discreetly on a windowsill.
Communicating air quality
While investigating ways to communicate home air quality on a physical product and a digital app, I went back to one of my insights. People rely heavily on visual cues to understand their home air quality. To incorporate this in a high impact way the physical CMF of the product reacts to its environment. As the air quality lowers the product begins showing speckles that become denser and denser as the air quality gets worse. Informing the user with a quick glance and creating a sense of alarm–because nothing is more important than your health.
02 PURIFIER
Flow purifier is a plant based air purifier that utilizes plant's soil as the only source of filter which makes it low maintenance and no artificial filters required that you need to replace. By having plants, Flow purifier brings emotional connection in comparison to the other purifiers in the market. This purifier is resembling elegant plant pot which makes it easier to blend into your cozy home space instead of being intrusive electronics.
1.Pot where plant goes
2.Top slot where you pour water
3.Top ventilation
4.Outer body
5.Water reservoir
6.Perforated hole for air to contact the soil
7.Wall to prevent reverse air flow
8.Fans
9.On/off button
10.Bottom ventilation hole for unfiltered air to go in
11.Power source
Air filtration path
Unfiltered air will be sucked into the purifier powered by fans from the bottom and that air will pass the soil and soil will act as a filter in order to clean the air. Filtered air will come out of the top ventilation.
Don't worry about watering everyday
Water reservoir entrance is all around the pot area and you can pour water from any angle. Water wick fabric is placed inside of the water reservoir for water intake control. There are four holes inside of the pot so that the water can come in and soil can soak up the water. Keeping plants can be stressful when they start to wilt–the phone app for this system will keep you accountable and alert you with a watering notification twice a month so that you won’t miss a day.
