Air is one of the five fundamental elements of life. Because of its invisible nature, the extent to which it is polluted is unfathomable. The UN Environment states that Air pollution is the most important environmental health risk of our time. 91% of us live in places where air quality is extremely poor. Since the Industrial revolution, our collective development to meet our demands is causing environmental consequences on every level. We have become more capable and connected with one another now, which enables us to solve this problem, even at its intimidating scale. At Carbon Craft design, we are inspired by the power of humanity to create a better future for our next generation.
Carbon Craft design is a Mumbai based design and material innovation company started in 2016. We are a group of Architects and Engineers developing carbon offsetting products for the world's construction demands to mitigate Air Pollution at scale. It all started with this question
It then dawned us that it requires an Architectural intervention.
Air is one of the five fundamental elements of life. Because of its invisible nature, the extent to which it is polluted is unfathomable. The UN Environment states that Air pollution is the most important environmental health risk of our time. 91% of us live in places where air quality is extremely poor. Since the Industrial revolution, our collective development to meet our demands is causing environmental consequences on every level. We have become more capable and connected with one another now, which enables us to solve this problem, even at its intimidating scale. At Carbon Craft design, we are inspired by the power of humanity to create a better future for our next generation.
There are methods to capture pollution but the next big question is what to do with the captured pollution. We set out to find a way to upcycle this into a new form. With a Technology that makes a real world impact and an Architectural perspective towards scaling, we aim to intervene the construction industry to make a collective impact in solving this problem. Conventional building materials are all around us due to its modularity and repeatability. So, we asked ourselves what if we infused this carbon in a building material to innovate scalable solutions.
According to a recent study, the construction industry cycle, right from making the building materials to the dusty construction sites, is responsible for large quantities of greenhouse gas emissions and a quarter of global waste. We investigated this cycle to develop a solution.
Our design philosophy is to address climate change issues in a material form for the people we are catering our solution to. It is our passion to empower people to make climate conscious decisions. And Design is the universal language that helps us achieve it.
Since 2016, we’ve been prototyping various iterations using local craft. The journey has helped us develop the first building material made with air pollution. Particulate Matter (PM) in polluted air that otherwise reaches our lungs is used in making the material.
Air Ink is a brand of Graviky Labs, founded by Anirudh Sharma, which makes ink and ink-based art products made by condensing soot-based gaseous effluents generated by air pollution due to incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. It is a spin-off group of MIT Media Lab. Air Ink produces its materials through a step-by-step process which primarily involves capturing of emissions, separation of carbon from the soot, and then mixing of this carbon with different types of oils and solutions. It uses a patented device called 'Kaalink' to carry out the filtration of soot, which contains carbon and other polluting agents like heavy metals and carcinogens.
