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aircela machine converts air and water into gasoline

Using air and water, aircela machine makes gas

Aircela Machine can transform air and water into fossil-free gas for engines and cars. Unveiled for the first time on May 20th, 2025, the machine can produce gas on-site and in real time without fossil inputs. It only uses air, water, and renewable electricity. The team designs the structure like a honeycomb, built as well for off-grid and distributed use. Chemistry makes the Aircela Machine work so it can convert air, water, and renewable energy into gas.

The team says that the Aircela Machine uses a water-based solution. It has potassium hydroxide, which captures carbon dioxide from air. There’s a chamber where this breeze goes through as if it were a wind tunnel. Inside this container, the air comes into contact with a specially designed liquid sorbent, which extracts the carbon dioxide. Thanks to the design of the chamber, the air and the sorbent have no choice but to ‘mix.’ Once the air touches the sorbent, the carbon dioxide molecules stick to the liquid, capturing a lot of it without using too much energy.

all images courtesy of Aircela

Sorbent that regenerates so it can be reused

To produce gas from air and water, the Aircela Machine uses electrolysis. It splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. The process also uses just renewable electricity, including solar power, to prevent the technology from using too much power. Once the two types of gases come through, the machine keeps the hydrogen one while releasing the oxygen variant. While all of these are happening, the machine ‘regenerates’ the liquid sorbent used in the first step. It cleans itself from the captured carbon dioxide so the sorbent can be reused again. Once it is purified, it restarts capturing carbon dioxide from the air, and the cycle repeats. 

Going back to producing the gas from air and water, the Aircela Machine combines the captured carbon dioxide and the hydrogen to create the methanol. The technology then converts this methanol into gas using chemical processes within the chambers. After that, the user pulls out the pump on the side of the machine and pours the fossil-free gas into a container for engine use. The team says that they’ve built the invention on the research by Dr. Klaus Lackner, a physicist who pioneered the concept of direct air capture in the early 2000s. The company plans to start scaling production in late 2025 to support residential, commercial, and industrial deployments.

the team says that the Aircela Machine uses a water-based solution

the team designs the structure like a honeycomb, built as well for off-grid and distributed use

side view of the machine

view of the pump

there’s a chamber where the air comes into contact with a specially designed liquid sorbent

the technology then converts this methanol into gas using chemical processes within the chambers

project info:

name: Aircela Machine

company: Aircela | @aircela_official

The post aircela machine converts air and water into gasoline appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

iridescent panels evoking gemstones refract shifting hues at BBWORKSPACE’s thailand café

the facets captures beauty of gemstones as spatial experience

BBWORKSPACE’s extension for a café in Chiang Mai wraps an outdoor terrace in vibrant, iridescent panels that refract shifting colors across the space throughout the day. THE FACETS sits on the grounds of a jewelery shop in a district known for its gemstone trade, and it explores how the optical, tactile, and symbolic properties of this craft might be translated into an immersive spatial experience. Through calibrated materials, light-responsive surfaces, and sculptural detailing, the building is transformed into a physical reflection of the objects it quietly references.

The intervention unfolds across two volumes. The original structure has been preserved and wrapped in a rhythmic grid of clear glass blocks, alternating in two sizes to evoke the structured clarity of a cut gem. The chromatic restraint — white, silver, and translucent — allows the renovated volume to glow softly at night, echoing the interior illumination of a display case. This luminous quality evokes the moment when a stone is brought into light. To the side of this, a newly built extension introduces contrast by referencing the faceted geometry of a diamond. The Thai practice forms this addition from a steel frame clad in dichroic acrylic panels that shift color throughout the day. As the sun moves, the facade glints with iridescent pinks, blues, and yellows, casting light and shadow in subtle motion.

all images by Rungkit Charoenwat

bbworkspace extends the café through two interventions

Inside, BBWORKSPACE transitions the concept from polish to origin, reimagining the pre-refinement state of a gemstone. The architects have shaped wall surfaces to suggest geological strata and stone caves, textured and matte, which contrast the high-gloss elements dispersed throughout. A sharply angular mirrored counter produces a refracted floor glow, while ceiling-suspended acrylic panels catch light and breeze with quiet movement. Throughout, the palette also remains light in form and tone to recall aquamarine, amethyst, citrine, and garnet, while furniture forms are abstracted from raw mineral shapes, but rendered with contemporary finish and transparency.

The garden at THE FACETS softens the geometry. A free-form pond loops through the outdoor seating area, doubling as a reflective surface for the architecture. Surrounding foliage is also carefully considered to provide contrast to the crystalline clarity of the buildings, and a low curved wall built from handmade clay bricks subtly reintroduces a local material tradition, grounding the project in place and providing a textured counterpoint to the sleekness of the café volumes.

BBWORKSPACE creates an extension for a café in Chiang Mai

the intervention at THE FACETS unfolds across two volumes

this extension introduces contrast by referencing the faceted geometry of a diamond

made from a steel frame clad in dichroic acrylic panels that shift color throughout the day

the space transformed into a physical reflection of the objects it references — the gemstone

the facade glints with iridescent pinks, blues, and yellows, casting light and shadow in subtle motion

the garden at THE FACETS softens the new geometries

inside, the architects have shaped wall surfaces to suggest geological strata and stone caves

BBWORKSPACE integrates calibrated materials, light-responsive surfaces, and sculptural detailing

project info:

name: The Facets

architect: BBWORKSPACE | @bbworkspace

location: Chiang Mai, Thailand

lead architect: Kotchakorn Piraban

lead interior designer: Jarasphong Cheuapool

photographer: Rungkit Charoenwat | 

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atto design by pininfarina to bring sculptural residential architecture to rio de janeiro

Architecture Shaped by Geography of brazil

In the evolving landscape of Brazil‘s Barra de Tijuca district of Rio de Janeiro, Atto Design by Pininfarina introduces a distinctive architectural language shaped by movement, form, and atmosphere. The project is the Italian design house’s first architectural contribution to the city, envisioned in partnership with Origem Incorporadora. With only twenty residences, Atto presents itself as a crafted response to place rather than a grand gesture of scale.

The contours of the building reflect the coastal rhythm of Rio, recalling the sinuous lines of Ipanema’s shore and the layered rise of Sugarloaf Mountain. Rather than imposing on the land, Atto seems to follow it, its stepped profile echoing the surrounding hills. The design does not mimic, but listens. It responds to the natural cadence of the landscape and the city’s shifting tempo.

images © Pininfarina

atto design by pininfarina lives with the landscape

In Atto Design’s architectural detailing, the designers at Pininfarina draws upon Brazil’s design heritage with a deliberate quietude. Textures recall the mosaics of Copacabana’s promenade while the layout of terraces speaks in the layered visual grammar of Burle Marx’s gardens. These references are held gently, folded into a design that is contemporary but grounded in cultural memory.

Greenery is integral to the structure, climbing and cascading across the façade in a choreography of shade, privacy, and oxygen. This vegetated skin softens the lines of the building and aligns it with the tropical setting. The approach reflects a desire to entwine architecture with climate and place, encouraging each residence to breathe with the forested hills that surround it.

Each residence within Atto is designed with large open volumes and uninterrupted sightlines toward the Atlantic. Floorplans, which range from 450 to 1100 square meters, prioritize daylight and cross-ventilation, allowing the movement of sun and breeze to shape the lived experience. In this way, the architecture becomes less about containment and more about openness.

Atto Design by Pininfarina introduces a sculptural residential project in Barra de Tijuca

Space, Light, and Air as Materials

Atto Design by Pininfarina rises within Barra de Tijuca, an area marked by wide boulevards, dense vegetation, and new urban growth. The district is becoming a focal point of architectural ambition in Rio, drawing projects that value space and nature in equal measure. Within this context, the design stands out for its restraint and its commitment to a softer kind of monumentality.

Samuele Sordi, Chief Architect Officer at Pininfarina, describes Rio as a city of contrasts, where tension between nature and urban intensity creates a unique spatial and emotional energy. Atto was designed to echo that dynamic — quiet in form but expansive in feeling. The result is an architecture that speaks to intuition as much as it does to logic.

For Origem Incorporadora, the project represents an opportunity to align with a design partner whose roots in innovation extend beyond architecture. As CEO Henrique Blecher notes, the intention was never to pursue signature alone, but to engage with a design philosophy capable of transforming the idea of home into an artistic encounter. The result is a building shaped by sensitivity and scale, where meaning is built into the smallest detail.

the architecture responds to Rio’s coastline and mountainous terrain through fluid, stepped forms

the building incorporates textures and visual language inspired by Brazilian design traditions

lush vegetation is integrated into the facade to create a vertical garden effect

natural elements shape the living experience through cross ventilation and open sightlines

project info:

name: Atto Design by Pininfarina

architect: Pininfarina | @pininfarina_official

location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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bjarke ingels group plans a stepped concrete tower along brooklyn’s gowanus canal

bjarke ingels group takes on Gowanus

Where the edges of the Gowanus Canal meet the streets of Brooklyn, a new geometry is set to emerge. Rising from a former industrial plot along Third Street, the latest contribution from Bjarke Ingels Group offers a distinctive composition of stepped forms and sculpted voids. Though built on a gridded structural logic, the residential building does not feel rigid. Instead, it opens, literally, to its environment, bending and folding toward light, air, and water.

The design stacks a sequence of block-like volumes, cascading from a peak of 27 stories down toward the canal’s edge. This stepped massing avoids a monolithic presence and instead creates a porous, almost courtyard-like composition that mediates between Gowanus’s historic masonry and its shifting skyline. The eastward-facing U-shape frames the water as a central anchor, forming a spatial relationship that foregrounds the site’s transformation from post-industrial terrain to waterfront destination.

visualizations © Bucharest Studio

toward a more Resilient brooklyn Waterfront

With its tower at 175 Third Street, the team at Bjarke Ingels Group builds on the momentum catalyzed by the 2021 Gowanus rezoning, which unlocked large-scale residential development throughout the neighborhood. Here, that ambition translates into more than 1,000 residential units, including roughly 250 designated affordable. It also continues a lineage of design study by BIG in this part of Brooklyn — an area that has drawn attention for its layered urban character and long-overdue reinvestment.

Chamfered entries pull the building away from the sidewalk in strategic moments, revealing sheltered corners and entryways that invite foot traffic and neighborhood circulation. Along the ground floor, artist studios and retail help integrate the building into a creative district anchored by the Powerhouse Arts facility and punctuated by landmarks like the Coignet Stone Company building. There is an attentiveness to how the new mass meets the street, revealing BIG’s ability to balance scale with intimacy.

the building’s stepped form responds to the canal and surrounding context

High Performance and High Living at 175 third street

Bjarke Ingels Group imagines 175 Third Street’s exposed concrete structure as a reference to the rough textures of the Gowanus Canal’s industrial past. Large openings carve through its facade, offering visual relief while allowing for generous windows and terraces. The texture, scale, and tone of the material choices bring a tactile quality to the project that resonates with the surrounding neighborhood, without replicating it.

A central element of the project is the public waterfront esplanade, designed by Field Operations. The sloping edge does more than extend access to the canal; it creates a buffer, a place that absorbs floodwaters and anchors the development in ecological reality. Unlike other stretches of the Gowanus Canal, this section offers a rare proximity to the water’s edge, which the landscape design by James Corner Field Operations emphasizes with recreation spaces, shaded seating, and a resilient meadow aimed at boosting biodiversity.

the project includes more than 1,000 units with around 250 designated affordable

175 Third Street is designed as an ultra-low-energy building, fully electric and projected to outperform city code by a meaningful margin. Its entire footprint is elevated to withstand flood risk. Inside, residents will find amenities that range from family-friendly to skyline-facing: fitness areas, lounge spaces, and a rooftop pool are all part of the offering. The views extend toward Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty — reminders of the city beyond, framed by the quiet flow of the canal below.

This project deepens Bjarke Ingels Group’s presence in New York, joining works like VIA 57 West and Wildflower Studios. It also links to BIG’s growing focus on resilient urban design, as seen in the East Side Coastal Resiliency project. In Gowanus, that ethos plays out through a hybrid of form, infrastructure, and landscape.

the east-facing U-shape frames the canal and opens up internal courtyards

project info:

name: 175 Third Street

architect: Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) | @big_builds

location: 175 Third Street, Brooklyn, NY

collaborating architect: dencityworks | architect | @dencityworks

client: Charney Companies | @charneycompanies, Tavros

landscape design: James Corner Field Operations | @fieldoperations

collaborators: AKRF, DeSimone, Ettinger engineering associates, Field Operations, Fried Frank, Hatfield Group, Impact Environmental, Jenkins and Huntington

size: 1,080,000 square ft

visualizations: © Bucharest Studio | @bucharest.studio

partner-in-charge: Bjarke Ingels, Martin Voelkle
project manager: Michelle Stromsta
design lead: Jason Wu
project architect: Christina Papadopoulou
team: Alejandra Cortes, Andreas Buettner, Artem Chouliak, Benjamin Caldwell, Changbin Kim, Douglas Brooks, Eliza Austin, Evan James Hotary, Giulia Frittoli, Jan Leenknegt, Kirat Pandher, Luca McLaughlin, Margaret Tyrpa, Mateo Deza, Matt Adler, Pauline Lavie-Luong, Petch Peewsook, Sungmin Kim, Qyu-Ri Kim, Vi Madrazo

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