Government
A Movable Skyscraper to Filter China's Nasty Air
This futuristic tower aims to use solar power to eliminate air pollution.
Despite China's avowed war on pollution, the air above its major cities continues to resemble the grayish pea soup of an airport's smoking room. But designer Alexander Balchin believes he's devised a way to clear up this choking mess: a skyscraper that sucks in dirty air at the bottom and spews it out, fresh-smelling, at the top.
Balchin conceived of the "Clean Air Tower" while doing research on Tianjin, a large northern city that he says incurred 1,200 premature deaths in 2011 due to bad air. The odd-looking building would theoretically harness the sun's power to run foul air through filters, providing a square mile of breathable space in the city.