Human beings are always trying to improve or ‘better engineer’ nature and/or natural processes. For some narcissistic reason, we, as a species, are constantly convincing ourselves that the designs and creations we conjure up in our heads somehow better natural systems and processes that are a result of millions and millions of years of natural selection and development…the new plant-based air filter called ANDREA is no exception.
Invented by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur with Harvard professor David Edward, ANDREA is intended to transform household plants into air cleaners. And how is this achieved? By incasing a small houseplant, such as an aloe or jade plant, in a plastic incasing equipped with an exhaust fan.
As stated on ANDREA’s website:
It employs both active plant filtration, along with water and soil to provide a multistage system that cleanses air from harmful toxins that can irritate and be harmful to your lungs. This living filter accelerates room pollutants through the active infrastructure system of a plant to continuously clean and oxygenate the rooms in your home. Tests performed by Research Triangle Park Labs indicate that Andrea has a 53% efficiency of filtration of formaldehyde, one of the most toxic indoor gases, approximately 40 times more efficient than standard portable HEPA or activated carbon filters.
Gadgets=Good?
Sounds and looks pretty cool right? I mean it’s 40 times more efficient than a HEPA filter. What else can achieve such results? The answer; a houseplant. That’s right, the $200 manufactured plastic casing along with the energy-consumptive “whisper quiet” fan is essentially doing what the houseplant inside it would do WITHOUT its plastic-domed prison. There are actually several varieties of houseplants that clean the air better than others, but none require a power source or petroleum-based plastic enclosures to do so.
The real reason something like the ANDREA exists is simple; people are gadget obsessed. Some people may view the ANDREA as clever and are willing to pay $200 for a $3 plant as long as there is some slick design and marketing behind it. While I’m all for good and interesting design, I’m also a believer in designing things that need to be designed. The ANDREA is not one of them.
The Good: It comes with a plant?
The Bad: Paying $200 for a $3 houseplant that would essentially achieve the same task without its ridiculous manufactured enclosure. Instead of being a carbon sink, the plant, because of the material sourcing, transportation and fabrication associated with the manufacture and sale of its enclosure, now has an enormous carbon footprint.
The Bottom-Line: Thinking that blowing air with a fan (whose operation itself releases a small amount of airborne VOCs) through a houseplant enclosed in a petroleum-based plastic dome is good and sustainable design is not really thinking at all.
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