AER

A Material-Driven Home Air Filtration Concept

A New Approach To Air Filtration Using Charcoal Bioplastic.

Aer is a material‑forward home air filtration concept that leverages the inherent duality of charcoal bioplastic, serving both as the product’s housing and as a vapor‑adsorbing filter eliminating the need for traditional plastic enclosures. Developed through first‑principles reasoning and material exploration, it reimagines home air purification as sustainable, elegant, affordable, and accessible to all.

UC Berkeley MDes, Capstone Project

Core77 Design Awards, Sustainability Award, 2023

Red Dot Museum Exhibition, Weaving The Future, Sustainable Design Exhibition 2025

Material Driven Design - A Process of Making & Iteration

My journey began with a deep curiosity about charcoal's natural properties and potential. I explored its inherent filtration capabilities and its viability as a bioplastic to replace conventional plastic housings in consumer products. My specific design challenge was to create a material-forward industrial design solution that could provide affordable and accessible air filtration for small living spaces in urban communities disproportionately affected by high pollutant levels.

With this ambitious goal, I embarked on a series of hands-on material explorations, developing multiple variations of charcoal bioplastics while experimenting with diverse casting methods and shapes, rigorously testing them for novel design attributes and enhanced filtration benefits.

In addition to yielding messy and sometimes beautiful results, this hands-on material-based iterative process enabled me to craft an innovative design solution that addresses my goals, underscoring the role of material investigation as inspiration in design and the critical importance of circular and accessible design principles.

Experimenting with charcoal based bioplastic