Welcome to this Aerolis blogpost.

By now, Aerolis has become an exciting design. Aerolis has the ability to swipe you off your feet, to take you away from reality and to lead you to its own dimensions, even though it is a dynamic structure that has grown based on its own surroundings.




All this started out as a student's project.

Last year, 5 bio-engineering students worked out a basic idea of implementing an air filtration unit in a small-scale design in an attempt to bring the (bio)technology closer to the people. The students started with working out a concept in which a biofilter (read more about it later) is built in in an accessible design that can be used in a private context. This started off nice, but time led to more ripening of the idea and in the end, the input of a brilliant design student took Aerolis by the hand and guided it to its current complexity.

We took a step back from the original idea to implement small-scale an air filter and we started to envision Aerolis bigger (in fact, it needed us to take back several steps). The design revolves around average wind data - acceleration, speed and velocity - of a certain location and how a structure like Aerolis can grow by means simulation towards the highest wind speed, directing itself in the strongest winds available. Allowing the structure to grow towards a variable input lends Aerolis its very dynamic character, relying on environmental conditions to direct its growth.

The presented prototype is based on an Los Angeles wind data, but virtually any location, provided there are enough relevant data available, can be simulated. This gives another character trait to Aerolis: it will never be the same for any location, and it can be uniquely realised according to its destination.

Los Angeles prototype

In terms of scale, the new Aerolis is a structure that can rise up to several meters that can serve as an air filter and function as a city's green lung.

The next step in Aerolis' journey is its participation in an international competition: the Biodesign Challenge in the Museum of Modern Arts, in New York City. This competition challenges student to bring biotechnology closer to the people through design. Aerolis is a perfect candidate for this competition as its basic structure sprouted from a biofiltration unit and it still embodies a possible housing for such biotechnologies to answer a contemporary, environmental and social issue.

More stories on possible implementations of biotechnological knowledge and technology for Aerolis will follow later on during its journey to NYC.