Silver Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Products Design · 2022
Compact Tower Air Purifier and Sterilizer
by Sxdesign
- A' Design Award 2022 Silver Winner in Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Products Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: Healthlead
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 993,892
- Verification code 7191DC7FC6 · Verify this award
About Compact Tower Air Purifier and Sterilizer
Compact Tower is an air purifier and sterilizer designed for small and crowded homes. The cylindrical body measures 240 millimeters in diameter and 470 millimeters in height, and is made of injection molded ABS. Computational fluid dynamics testing guided a new centrifugal fan that reduces the air duct volume while keeping the same performance, leaving space for an ultraviolet disinfection lamp. The purifier delivers 100 liters of clean air per minute. A hemisphere on the top edge holds the control panel and a translucent indicator that shows air quality from different angles.
Emerging from contemporary traditions of minimalist industrial design that prioritize formal purity and functional transparency, sxdesign's Compact Tower Air Purifier and Sterilizer represents a refined meditation on the intersection of domestic technology and aesthetic refinement. The work demonstrates sophisticated understanding of how cylindrical geometry can communicate both efficiency and approachability, the tower form suggesting vertical air movement while maintaining a footprint that respects modern spatial constraints. The designer appears to engage deliberately with established visual languages of premium consumer electronics, where white surfaces have become shorthand for hygiene, modernity, and technological advancement. Particularly noteworthy is the treatment of the perforated intake zone, where functional necessity transforms into decorative opportunity through carefully calibrated aperture sizing and distribution, creating visual texture that rewards close examination while communicating breathability and airflow at a glance. The control interface, positioned with ergonomic consideration at natural hand height, introduces material and chromatic contrast through its glossy black surface, while the singular cyan indicator establishes a communication channel between device and user through subtle luminous feedback. The concentric grille crowning the composition suggests cyclonic air movement, its radiating pattern creating a visual terminus that completes the vertical journey upward. One might observe how the design successfully negotiates the challenge facing all domestic appliances, the need to appear simultaneously invisible within interior environments yet confident enough to justify presence and investment. The overall achievement suggests a design philosophy valuing restraint, precision, and the elevation of functional objects to contemplative status, inviting viewers to consider how thoughtful design transforms necessary technologies into welcome domestic companions.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Credit to the CFD tests over 1000 times, the designers create a new centrifugal fan that can significantly reduce the air duct volume with the same performance, and help combine UV disinfection lamps compactly. Following the structure and function, the appearance presents a minimalist style and expresses the working principle of the product. A hemisphere on the top edge not only shapes the control panel, indicator and visual center, but also provides novelty through its asymmetry.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Diameter: 240mm Height: 470mm. Uses the wavelength of 280nm violet light.
- Tags
- Air purifier, Disinfection, Air pollution, asymmetrical design, developing region healthcare
- Production Technology
- White body with grey top. ABS injection molding. Transparent black acrylic interactive panel. Transparent black lampshade. UVC disinfection lamp.
- Design Challenge
- A cylinder with 240mm diameter has to provide 350 cubic meters fresh air per hour and contains a UV disinfection lamp. We spent several months working on how to compress the volume of the structure. Meanwhile, product appearance should balance between simplicity and novelty. All above is to face the challenge of providing a cost effective, powerful and attractive product for people struggling with pollution and virus and light up their lives.
- Project Duration
- The project started in Jan 2021 in Beijing and finished in Nov 2021 in Shenzhen.
- Operation Flow
- The hemisphere contains two functions. The top surface is designed to be control panel. Secondly, the hemispheric part below is made of transclucent material to show the air quality through the indicator. Hemispheric surface makes the indicator and information reachable from different perspectives. This machine is only 240mm in diameter and can provide 100L fresh and healthy air per minute. It is capable of circulating air 3.65 times per hour in a 40 square meters room, which makes it suitable for those people in developing regions.
- Research
- The crowded living environment in developing countries and regions, where no surprise three generations of six people live in about 50 square meters or less. Meanwhile, air pollution and the covid-19 crisis of the past two years have always been big threat to the safety and health of residents.
- Inspiration
- Under COVID-19, air pollution and economic pressure, people lived in developing country are not only facing the health risk, but also enduring the crowded living environment. On the other hand, the "computational fluid dynamics (CFD)" technology can help designers to optimize the air duct structure systematically. So we draw inspiration from the two aspects, hoping to design a new type of air purifier that is powerful, cheap, compact, and can fit in the people's life in developing country.
- Image Credits
- sxdesign
- Patents
- sxdesign