Mexico City’s Manuel Gea Gonzalez Hospital Has an Ornate Double Skin that Filters Air Pollution

The Hospital Manuel Gea Gonzalez is used to helping Mexico City’s sick, but the new façade of the Torre de Especialidades is also helping the environment. A hive-like double skinned façade made of <a href="http://prosolve.elegantembellishments.net" target="_blank">Elegant Embellishments' prosolve370e</a> modules has been installed to help clean up the city’s polluted air. The decorative façade is both functional and fashionable, helping to soak up air pollution and creating a better quality of life.

The lacey façade was inspired by quasicrystal patterns, resulting in a white geometric shade that covers the front of the building.

Spanning almost 27,00 square feet, the cleansing screen stretches across the Avenida San Fernando arterial at the one end of the hospital.

Mexico City is a densely populated, <a href="http://inhabitat.com/los-angeles-without-traffic/lasanstraffic2/" target="_blank">heavily trafficked city</a>, with many older cars on the road which yield higher carbon emissions, making it an ideal place to reap the benefits of a cleansing façade.

The ornate double skin was designed by Prosolve, and chosen for its anti-microbial and <a href="http://inhabitat.com/edmonton-airports-beautiful-new-living-green-wall-works-to-clean-the-air/" target="_blank">de-polluting properties</a> that also create a beautiful statement of design.

Prosolve tiles are coated with superfine titanium dioxide, which <a href="http://inhabitat.com/dom-aquitectura-designs-green-master-plan-for-huizhou-china-to-clean-air-and-reduce-pollution/" target="_blank">fights pollution</a> when activated by ambient daylight. When installed near heavy traffic or on building facades, the tiles help to neutralize emissions and other toxins, stopping them dead in their tracks. A network of the tiles not only helps to cleanse the air entering their host buildings, but also the air in the urban setting.

Aside from acting as an <a href="http://inhabitat.com/treepods-carbon-scrubbing-artificial-trees-for-boston-city-streets/treepods-ed02/" target="_blank">incredible urban air filter</a>, the prosolve370e skin acts as a natural light filtration system and solar gain blocker for the interior of the Hospital Manuel Gea Gonzalez, effectively saving the hospital’s energy bill for climate control and light.