Will Kraków soon have a smog-eating music school?

With high smog levels making headlines in cities across Europe in recent weeks, rarely has air pollution been such a salient issue. Polish architecture studio FAAB has responded to Kraków’s air quality issues with a design for a music academy that “eats” the offending smog.

In its plan for the Kraków Music Academy, the Warsaw-based firm has employed angular structures covered with a moss that attracts and absorbs airborne pollutants — including nitrous oxide and ozone — and then converts them into its own biomass. In the words of FAAB CEO Dénes Honus, “the moss literally eats air pollution”.

Developed by German company Green City Solutions, the moss culture would cover approximately 1,300 sqm of the academy’s external surface. According to the architects, such coverage would equate to planting around 33,000 trees in terms of reduction in air pollution.

FAAB’s plan was formulated in response to a call for designs for the riverside site, which was formerly home to a military base. The studio has suggested that the school could form part of a larger project called Kraków Music City, which would see many of Kraków’s top musical institutions gather in the area, creating a kind of musical cluster.

The Kraków Music Academy is due to reveal the winning design on 31 March 2017.

Source: Dezeen