Concept window uses sunlight to improve air quality

A new window concept uses sunlight to purify the air inside and also create a foggy screen that allows privacy

Spotted: Jisu Yang, a product design student at South Korea’s Hongik University, has devised a new window concept. The project aims to create a window that can both purify the indoor air and provide privacy without curtains or blinds. The window would work using sunlight to purify the air.

Many apartment dwellers, especially those living on the ground floor, face the choice between opening the window for fresh air and maintaining privacy with a closed window. Yang hopes to give people both, with his design for an air-purifying window, called the Hazy, that works when it’s closed. 

The Hazy Air Purifier is designed to be installed in the window frame, and can also work as a standalone unit, which can be placed anywhere indoors. The unit is equipped with an air vent that connects to the outside, and a fan that blows air through a filter that uses sunlight to purify the air as it enters the room. 

In addition to purifying the air, the window can also generate an opaque “screen” over the window glass, to offer privacy. The Hazy can be adjusted to fit most sizes of windows and is equipped with an LED display which notifies the user of the concentration of particulates in the air.

Air quality is an increasingly important consideration – pollution levels are linked to a variety of negative health outcomes. At the same time, people stuck indoors for much of the day crave fresh air. Perhaps that is why we are seeing a number of innovations in the area of air purifications. We have recently covered several of these, including a personal air purifier and an indoor air purifier disguised to look like a work of art.