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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Air has been source for our living planet to breathe. It is the mixture of gases that
fills the atmosphere and gives life to plants and animals. But when the air is being
polluted it affects larger proportion of our living system. Filtration of the breathing air
has become important for the comfort and safety of the people inside the buildings. By
the effective utilization of technical knowledge the pollution can be prevented in
greaterextent.
Commercial structures such as office buildings often have heating and air conditioning
systems that pull in the air from outside the building. Most single family homes and
many apartment buildings have no such air filtration systems, as outside air is introduced
through screen windows which may block insect from screens. But it may be exposed to
dust which may cause allergies . To prevent that these, breathe bricks are introduced to
the exterior walls of the building .It has a cyclone separator technique which seperates
solid particles from gases hence air will more healthier to breathe.
Hence these type of systems are very helpul for average income families living in
city centre.If this system is effectively taken into usage more people will be benifitted
especially in indian region where cities like Delhi are prone to air pollution ,so people
can easily afford since it doesn’t require electricity or other major energies to operate .
Air filtration for domestic dwellings are usually carried out by pleated” flow through
filter” system .
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
[1] Kate Hajash(2016)
In this paper Breathe brick is conceptualized as an organ that can filter harmful particulates
and protect people ,Breathe brick is a low cost solution to a worldwide issue of poor air
quality .Replacing the standard CMU , breathe brick is both structural and improves building
ventilation system through filteration .As a part of a two wall system ,the brick forms the
exterior structural wall separated from a typical insulated partition by a ventilation gap . The
brick has four variations that assemble together with help of the coupler which serves to
complete the cyclone and align the bricks .
CHAPTER 3
HISTORY BEHIND THE INVENTION
Breathe brick is the brainchild of American architect Carmen Trudell. She was an
assistant professor in California State University of architecture. She and her team of
researchers invented the “Breathe brick” in 2015.
Architect and researcher Carmen Trudell was studying the air quality issue in Cairo ,the
capital of Egypt . The major problem in Cairo was the biomass fog of dust called as Black
cloud. She found that the air quality around urban regions across the city was poor and she
also observed many residential buildings nearer to the city .This was the main inspiration
behind the invention of Breathe bricks.
Trudell wondered why a building couldn’t filter out toxins . Certainly there were many other
ways to purify air ,but they are complex and expensive. She wanted a passive solution that
could be installed into the building structure. The result was a faceted block called Breathe
brick.
The idea of Breathe brick is found to be simple but very sophisticated . Trudell and her team
at San Luis architectural school designed the shape and other components of this brick that
contained no filter, but the air would create the filter affect . Breathe Brick is designed to
form a part of a building’s regular ventilation system. Hence it is very useful for residential
structures in urban cities.
CHAPTER 4
METHODOLOGY
4.1 What is Breathebrick?
Breathe brick is a concrete masonry system that filters polluted outdoor air so that it
becomes healthy enough to bring directly into occupied spaces .It is mostly useful for urban
residential buildings. Based on the principle of cyclonic technology ,in which physical
particles are removed from a fluid via vortex separation. The modules which are vertically
aligned via recycled polymer couplers and dust particulates fall into a collection hopper at the
bottom coarse.
Breathe brick doesn’t require any energy to operate as it works on pressure and temperature
differentials. Breathe brick is optimal for one and two storey structures in areas with poor air
quality.
The Breathe brick can function with both mechanical and passive ventilation systems ,at the
brick simply delivers filtered air into the wall plenum, this air can then be into the building
interior through mechanical equipment or through trickle vents driven by passive system
such as stackventilation.
CHAPTER5
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
5.1 Advantages of BreatheBricks
o It is inexpensive and hence it is economicallyaffordable
o Environmental friendly
o Energy efficient since it operates without electricity and makes a part of the
ventilationsystem
o Passively filter outdoor air prior to introduction to an indoorenvironment
o Breathe brick system can operate as active since it is integrated into existing
HVAC system ,or passive as independentsystem.
CHAPTER 6
CASE STUDY
6.1 Introduction
Sustainable development principles in the built environment have encouraged
researchers to focus on more efficient building envelopes .The result of this change is a home
which is a small urban apartment in Port Melbourne ,Australia .The architect named Maeline
Sewall used this concept of breathe brick and they observed that the schematic design and
brief budget was cut to half . Inside ,the breathe brick emphasis on sustainably sourced
materials creates form follows function aesthetic and double brick wall minimizing the need
of plasterboard and applied finishes . Here multifunctional modular modular facades are
introduced and their strength and weakness are highlighted inorder to encompass a number of
solution derived from a wide variety of advanced integrated facades.
6.2 Researchmethod
In determining which methods to adopt ,the research design the priority is to ensure
that the methods maximize the chance of realizing its aim . This research uses the descriptive
analysis method and it was carried out through the combination of literaturereview . The
paper mainly discusses the sustainably goals of energy efficiency in buildings modules
combined designed stratergies for facades .Therefore this design investigates façade design
and energy consumption in recently designed advanced integrate facades and aims to revise
an innovative integrated façade that responds to the exterior and interior requirements at the
same time. In the formwork of integrated façade systems the most concerning functions
include as follows
Responding to variations of the indoor and outdoorenvironment
Maintaining comfortconditions
Requiring low energydemand
CHAPTER 7
AWARDS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
7.1 Awards for Breathebricks
Award for Best Construction material that could revolutionizeIndustry-2016
R & D Award for best innovative Architecture by Architect Magazine -2015
C3 Green innovation Award-2013
7.2 Future Development
Breathe brick could become an inexpensive , effective way for the masses to improve
indoor air quality . Its smart but relatively low tech and that helps the technology affordable.
Thus that is important for tackling a problem in developing countries . If the funds is
properly sanctioned that in mass scale these bricks can be produced based on requirement in
the cities.
Inventions such as a brick that turns a building into its own air filter exemplify both the
importance and broad reach that the architects can have on humanity .This is one of the many
examples of the why advances in these type of environmental friendly architecture is so
important .
Further work on this project includes the design of prototype multi family dwelling for Cairo
to show how the Breathe brick walls can be architecturally integrated into a livable structure
,and how building form and planning can contribute to a natural ventilation stratergy that
allows the breathe brick to perform in a number of scenarios .This work will be completed
over the future and would be ready for presentation at the indoor air 2014 conference in
addition to the design , research , and experimentation work included in the paper .
CONCLUSION
The Breathe brick is a capable of capturing particles above PM 5 at a variety of pressures ,
and therefore and demonstrated viability of the component .When compared to the
performance of HEPA filter or a mechanically supported air cleaning system . The breathe
bricks performance is nit stellar .However the applications for this building system would be
in the locations where the currently no air filtration is used ,and therefore the removal of
large particles without an input of fossil fuel energy will improve the living conditions for
people in these homes.
The Breathe brick may be modified to provide surface articulation and ornamentation ,or
may be modified to improve the velocity and quantity of air entering the internal cyclone
chamber. The surface detail possibilities allow the developments of a craft and beauty in
making these modules .One of the most sustainable things that we can do is to build for its
longevity and maintainence is a key factor in the life of the building or architectural
component . Beauty has been known to inspire care.
If architect and contractors are encouraged to create beauty in their dwellings ,the chances
of them surviving is improved and they will be worth the materials mined for them and for
the human energy embedded in the process.
REFERENCES
[1] R . Mattock & H. Straif – IARC monograph on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to
humans-2013
[2] H. M Shalaby and ElfRaey – Study of the formation of the Black cloud and its
dynamics over Cairo ,Egypt using MODISpangule
[3] U. S department of Energy – Building energy data book-2012
[4] MadehIzatHamakareem – Building technology guide by editing atconstructor.org
[5] Scott Rory – The innovative pollution absorbing brick from Arch daily-2015
[6] Kate hajash –design and research of breathe brick book-2015
[7] Barbosa .S – Perspective of double skin facades for ventilated buildings-2017