With the majority of Britons living outside major cities, the worries of air pollution do not keep many people awake at night. However, in some cities around the world the rise in air pollution levels has become so impactful that architects and engineers are now forced to consider technological solutions in building and infrastructure design.

Data released by The World Health Organisation (WHO) 2016 revealed that air pollution is now the biggest environmental cause of death. Their research shows that 6.5 million people, primarily in major cities, died in 2012 due to polluted air with 268,000 of these deaths occurring in Europe.

One example of this is the Manuel Gea González Hospital in Mexico City. Due to the rapidly increasing levels of air pollution in the city, the owners have added a ‘smog-eating’ façade which covers 2,500 square metres encompassing the hospital.

The revolutionary façade system consists of thermoformed shells which are then coated in photocatalytic titanium dioxide which reacts with daylight to neutralise certain elements of air pollution with the aim of ultimately negating the effects of up to 1,000 cars a day.

Sheffield’s ‘smog-eating’ banner associates closely to the creation of “catalytic clothing”; a collaboration between designer Helen Storey and polymer chemist Tony Ryan. Storey and Ryan are exploring how clothing and textiles can be used as a catalytic surface to purify air by adding titanium dioxide nano-particles to laundry detergent, effectively allowing wearers of “catalytic” garments to neutralise pollutants in the environment simply by wearing said garments in natural daylight.

While it is obvious that ‘smog-eating’ buildings are a technically brilliant solution to an ever-increasing problem facing the modern world, they need to be appearing and increasing at a rate which matches our global crisis.