Carbon Trade X-Change

AIR REMEDIATION FACILITY
TUDOR CITY, NEW YORK, NY

Advanced Research Design Studio Fall 2015
Duration: 12 Weeks
Collaborators: Valeria Rybyakova
Critics: Shawn Rickenbacker

The Carbon Trade XChange project proposes an infrastructural system as a solution to the exponentially growing issue of air pollution and global warming. Air pollutant levels are at extremely dangerous levels in New York due to carbon emissions, urban heat island effect, and a rapidly growing industrial economy. The core of our design is a data driven, responsive system influenced by the air pollutant and air quality
index of New York City, site contextual air velocity simulations, aerodynamic integrated skin systems, and mechanical and passive air remediation techniques. The proposal is a system that can be plugged into any city facing these growing issues, and adapt based on site specific conditions.

Our integrated design features a group of (6) stack towers, a remediation “zone”, and a catenary skin that binds them all together. The design utilizes principles of the solar chimney, stack effect, and Bernoulli’s principle to reduce the amount of energy needed to move air through the system. The remediation zone is lifted off the ground to utilize the natural uplift of the lower altitude, higher pressure air.
The bottom skin acts as intake, taking in polluted air and re-directing it to the air intake chambers in the remediation zone. The air is passed through different experimental systems; electrostatic precipitators, desulferization scrubbers, etc, then fed back into the towers and exhausted back into the environment, also releasing a set amount of clean air into the interior public spaces of the facility. The top skin is clad in Titanium Dioxide coated ETFE cushions, which essentially kills smog particles in the presence of sunlight. The public floor sits beneath this top skin, a sinuous, undulating slab dictated by the size of the mechanical equipment beneath it. The public floor features a wide variety of programs for educating and observing the process of air remediation first hand.