To measure the impact pollution has on the environment I chose a well-balanced approach. These collected data are to represent the development of Breathing Motion Landscapes. I collected them from three landscapes located in East London, and they are the foundation of my study. I mainly focused on the pollution caused to our ecological environment by industrial smoke by simulating a Breathing Motion Landscape with artificial smoke.
I drew this picture according to the data I collected. It demonstrates the speed and direction of wind, air pressure, density of air, temperature, humidity and pollution level. I combine all these data to construct the physical breathing systems.

DATA Collection

Landscape Measurement

Measuring instrument:Air quality scanners.Ventus wireless weather station.

fog performance

Simplified physical modeling of the motion of smoke particles is based on the analysis of such activity in hydromechanics. I use grids to solve Navie-Stokes equationsso that I could simulate realistic smoke.

Simulation of smoke based on number of particle created function

setting the trace of smoke, using digital image to simulate smoke
First of all, I combine Archimedes principle of buoyancy and the natural wind movement to analyze the forces acting on the smoke. Then I assume an ideal gas state to construct basic equations. These equations describe how the smoke moves.

breathing system

I referred to the capillary system in human lung when I decided on the material and shape of the system. I put lighting on each vein. These lights give different colors according to the pollution level. At the same time, different data will result in different shapes of the measuring system. Here I adopted impressionism in picking the colors, so I can describe the smoke better.

Turbines at the bottom of the breathing system; they spread smoke by changing air pressure.

smoke transmission equipment

. Air quality scanner

Pollution measuring system

Air quality scanner looks like a radar system. It is installed in various locations on the river terrace to form a monitoring base. Its fan structure rotates to collect data then pass on these to the breathing system through signal. Those blue and green parts are small imaging spectrometers which work in UV and visible light. At night it collects data using its own illumination system and can reach into water to carry out measurements.

Measuring point

Measuring the spreading of pollution from the sources; which are located in the downwind area. C point is where measurements being taken.

Measuring pollution landscape

To measure the impact pollution has on the environment I chose a well-balanced approach. Such obtained measurements are to represent the development of Breathing Motion Landscapes (BML). I would collect data from three landscapes located in East London, which are to serve as the foundation of my study.

MArch Report

Open publication - Free publishing - More report

Breathing Motion Landscape

Last term my research looked at how smoke inhalation and exhalation relates both to the body and the environment. This term, I divided the project into four separate categories - ideas, art, medical, and environment. I used this topic to develop construction designs – using ideas relating to the space of the human body. This includes the active rhythm of breathing in and out as well as the changing volume and shape of the lungs. At the same time, I have been considering how smoke combines with and has an affect on the environment, pollution, climate and sunlight. Being a part of every living being, I feel the lung is a good symbol of communal living and how we all have an impact on the environment around us.

The aim of this research is to consider how humans live within a smoky environment and how their own breathing or smoking changes the body of smoke. In this project, I have combined ideas about everyday human behaviour with scientific knowledge of the body’s interior. I am particularly interested in the interaction between space and human breathing.

I made this drawing to illustrate the action of smoking. I also researched how the human lung changes after smoking for one year, five years, twenty years, thirty years and fifty years. This clearly shows how the environment in the lung changes as a result of smoke pollution and the person’s chosen lifestyle.
During this research, I also looked at the issue of smog, which is a heavy fog caused by extreme pollution. This was a huge problem in London fifty years ago and sometimes covered the city for days, preventing everyone from working. After seeing this for himself, the artist Monet made some interesting paintings, using dark and mute colours.

I have been looking at an area in London, which is currently seriously polluted. It is situated by the river Thames - on the left side is a factory and on right is an airport. Both of these sites produce gas, which pollutes the environment. I am designing a new landscape for this area, which I have called ‘Lung’.
For the model of the construction I am using a transparent material. I have chosen this material because I want to incorporate the idea of transparency. This will bring both environment and architecture together, as well as human activity inside and outside the building. The landscape combines light, art and space in response to the changes and complexity of human breathing and its impact on their environment.

When the factory work starts at 7:00AM, it starts to produce polluted gas, which affects the view of the construction. This also throws out a different body of colour as well as expanding the presence of the factory construction. At about 1:00PM the factory produces more gas and environmental pollution peaks. At this time, the smoke trail moves much faster and its expanse is both higher and bigger. By the time the factory shuts down around 10PM, the main flights at the airport have also slowed down. As a result, visible pollution disappears and the presence of the factory goes back to normal.

I have compared this factory and movement of smoke to the function the human lung and its exposure to smoke inhalation. I am concerned with how smoke spreads into and damages the space of the lung as well as the air that we breath. The parallel between city pollution and a potentially unhealthy lung is a good reminder that we should protect the environment. I am using this concept to design a landscape, which expresses the complex relationship between the human body and environment.

I have also looked at medical research into the function of the lung, such as how blood capillaries assist blood circulation in the human body. There are around 200, 0000 capillaries in the human lung and if these were spread out they would cover a football ground. These cells react to polluted gas, which creates detrimental changes to DNA and eventually causes the lung system to fail.

Why people need to breath? After we digestion food, our body can mainly gain glucose, fat and protein. To make these become energy which support our body, they need to be transit to all parts of our body through blood and then experience oxidation process. Therefore we need to absorb oxygen from the inhaled air.
When a person inhale smoke: the diaphragm moves downwards increasing the volume of the chest cavity, and the intercostals muscles pull the ribs up expanding the rib cage and further increasing this volume. This increase of volume lowers the air pressure in the alveoli to below atmospheric pressure. Because air always flows from a region of high pressure to a region of lower pressure. This is called negative pressure breathing, changing the pressure inside the lungs relative to the pressure of the outside atmosphere. In contrast to inspiration, during expiration the diaphragm and intercostal muscles relax. This returns the thoracic cavity to its original volume, increasing the air pressure in the lungs, and forcing the air out.
Negative pressure breathing can be also seen as that we have to let the air which comes from our surrounding area get into our chest. We cannot breathe in air which are on the other side of world, thus we cannot always choose the best quality air.
The liquid and gaseous effluents produced from sugar industry have adverse impact on ecosystem and environment due to their high BOD load and toxic constituents according to Sugar Tech magazine. The sugar factory in Silvertown create big amount of carbon dioxide, although there is a new biomass boiler introduced to the refinery, and it expected to slash carbon emissions from energy use by 25 per cent in less than two years. No matter how much pollution it can reduce, it will not be zero. The surrounding areas contain large number of residence, highways, The City Airport etc. These areas are negatively breathing in the gaseous effluents that come from the sugar factory every day, like our lungs.

Nat Chard drew our attention towards the body- almost a piece of urbanism. He calculated flow rates for blood, air, food and fluids. The system duplicated the existing organs that are most closely associated with the most programmatic sites relating architecture to the body. A person wearing the architecture in a position to take an accompanying x-ray, that reveals new organs inside (x-ray). Researched an urbanist and found out that the internal architecture work hard to make interior feel continuous with the outside world, give autonomy. Change the default setting for organs cause some effects on the city. By changing the performance of the body you necessarily change the city.
The whole area in Silvertown also can be seen as that it is constructed by different organs, residences, airport, highways, sugar factory… residents, travelers, workers in sugar factories… are new organs inside. They are affecting each other closely. However, unlike Nat Chard’s study, there is no such an autonomy system inside this area to help it to balance. The city has changed it default setting, the inside organs need a device to work out for the best solution for gaseous effluents produced from sugar industry.