AirOffice is a carbon neutral office and meeting space. The algal winter garden is integrated in a completely reconfigurable and reversible timber structure.
AirOffice has been designed for a company headquarter in Switzerland.
The employees are involved in the different phases of the air-purification process while tending the living algae cultures growing within the glass photobioreactors.
The AirOffice allows for several levels of engagement between employees and the living cultures that grows within its reactors.
It is a new form of symbiotic office and the interaction occurs at different levels.
On one side it is about indoor air quality: the algae are capable of absorbing and re-metabolizing pollution particles as well as carbon dioxide and release oxygen that employee are breathing directly.
This type of direct interaction has other implications in terms of the awareness that the employee will mature about the air quality and the particular characteristics of the air quality of the space they inhabit for many hours every day.
The AirOffice also creates an internal winter garden, which obviously gives the opportunity for a closer connection with nature during working hours, which is beneficial psychologically for employees which spend several hours there.
The bubbling sound of the aeration for instance creates a white noise that is relaxing and help concentration.
Gardening and engaging the cultures in terms of feeding and extracting biomass on a regular basis also offers opportunities for relaxation and focus, which benefits the mental health of employees.
And finally, the Interior Garden provides a different kind of collaborative space for work.
Desks are opening onto this new type of interior landscape, offering potential elements of connection with other workers, for more informal work and meetings. Source and photos Courtesy of ecoLogicStudio.
