Enjoy 2 free articles a month. For unlimited access, get a membership now.

Air Office

EcoLogicStudio

SAVE SUBMISSION
Bronze
Bronze
AIRoffice at Haleon headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland - © Matthieu Croizier
AIRoffice oasis in the office space. - © Matthieu Croizier
AIRoffice relaxing green space. - © ecoLogicStudio
AIRoffice at Haleon headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland - © Matthieu Croizier

1 / 18

Sponsor
Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
JURY VOTES
Co-Working Space
6.36
5.76
6.43
6.81
6.34
Jan Clostermann
Jan Clostermann Founder and Director at CLOU Architects
6
5
6
6.5
5.88
Jason Chan
Jason Chan Founder at Jason Design Group
6.19
7.33
7.44
6.81
6.94
Justine Fox
Justine Fox Founder and Colour Specialist at Studio Justine Fox
Air quality has been shown to have...
7
7
7
8
7.25
Stéphane Bernier
Stéphane Bernier Partner and Director of Retail Strategy and Innovation at Ædifica
7.07
5
6.8
7.68
6.64
Maja Bernvill
Maja Bernvill Creative Director at Specific Generic
4
5
4
5
4.5
Marie Hesseldahl
Marie Hesseldahl Partner and Head of Interior and Product Design at 3xn
6
6
6
8
6.5
Marie-Andree Busque
Marie-Andree Busque Director Interior Architecture at Sid Lee Architecture
7
6.5
8
7.2
7.18
Bin Ju
Bin Ju Founder and Chief Design Director at Horizontal Design
6.46
5
6.3
7.83
6.4
Constance Guisset
Constance Guisset Founder at Constance Guisset Studio
8
6
7
7
7
Sanchit Arora
Sanchit Arora Principal Architect at Renesa Studio
6
6
6
6.5
6.13
Adi Utama
Adi Utama Global Office Development at JetBrains
7
6
7
7
6.75
Islam El Mashtooly
Islam El Mashtooly Creative Director at OBMI
7
5
7
6
6.25
Liyun Hao
Liyun Hao Founder and Design Director at EVD
5
5
5
5
5
Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
GRAND JURY VOTES
Shortlisted - Co-Working Space of the Year
6.72
6.31
6.54
6.85
6.61
Jason Steere
Jason Steere MD Brand & Experience at The Social Hub
6.36
5.76
6.43
6.81
6.34
Thomas Danet
Thomas Danet Design Director at Jones Lang LaSalle
6.36
5.76
6.43
6.81
6.34
Marta Nunez Anton
Marta Nunez Anton Associate Interior Designer at AECOM @ ID+S
7.53
7.53
6.43
6.81
7.08
Lindsay Roth
Lindsay Roth Design Director at Gensler
6.36
5.76
6.43
6.81
6.34
Anne-Rachel Schiffmann
Anne-Rachel Schiffmann Director of Interior Architecture at Snøhetta
7
6.75
7
7
6.94

Indoor air quality is a complex phenomenon that needs to be tracked and experienced daily. AirOffice proposes a unique prototypical office space, an experimental indoor garden where employees are invited to get involved in the air purification process powered by living microalgae cultures.

The world’s first AirOffice is now permanently installed at Haleon’s headquarter in Nyon, Switzerland. The space captures and stores carbon dioxide daily while purifying indoor air and re-metabolizing the by-products into organic biomass. Effectively the AirOffice system transforms the particles of pollution that our cities expel into nutrients for living cultures of cyanobacteria. Once grown, these can be harvested in order to re-enter the urban metabolism as raw material.

In office environments, microclimatic pockets form with unique concentrations of particles and polluting gasses. The kind of air we breathe while working at our desks affect the likelihood of us getting sick, our long-term health and ability to concentrate. The issue is still poorly understood compared to outdoor air pollution and varies regionally, daily and affects every person differently. For this reason, AirOffice can adapt to different conditions and evolve in time, as more monitoring data become available.

Designed like a modular and completely reversible system, made by a lightweight, recyclable timber structure, the AirOffice system houses several one-metre-tall lab grade glass photobioreactors, each filled with 10 litres of living photosynthetic microalgae.

In Nyon, the AirOffice is actualized in a bio-technological garden space of approximately 50sqm and hosts 12 reactors that adsorbs 240g of CO2 and release 180g of Oxygen producing 84g of biomass daily. Desks for informal meetings and several plants occupy the central space while more conventional personal working desks are arranged along both sides.

This type of direct interaction has important implications in terms of increasing employees' awareness of the characteristics of the air quality in the space they inhabit for many hours daily. Gardening and engaging with the algae cultures in terms of feeding and extracting biomass offers opportunities for relaxation and focus. The gentle bubbling sound of the aeration system creates white noise that is both relaxing and helps concentration. AirOffice creates a new kind of interior garden, providing a different kind of collaborative space for work.

Air Office is at the beginning of an unfolding process that we hope will influence every aspect of office interior design, including lighting, aeration, microclimatic filtration, sound, and, of course, construction materials. This influence will extend to the behaviours of the people who inhabit the space throughout the day, as being productive at work takes on a new set of ecological meanings starting from the control of the air we breathe.