Is it a bus or a mobile greenhouse? Madrid artist's innovative proposal to tackle pollution in cities

Emilio Alarcón suggests proposes roaming greenery that could help improve air quality

A. Cabeza

Madrid

Friday, 7 July 2023, 19:39

Pollution is one of the biggest challenges facing cities today. Despite constant attempts to reduce private traffic with more public transport and mobility alternatives, air pollution is still one of the main concerns of many city councils.

To alleviate this, many are transforming public roads with many more cycle lanes, drastically reducing lanes for road traffic and also incorporating a public fleet of municipal vehicles, from those used by cleaning and gardening brigades to public transport, that are electric.

Now, a multidisciplinary artist based in Madrid has decided to go further and has come up with an even more 'eco-friendly' proposal. Emilio Alarcón has presented his 'greenhouse buses' project, with which he aims to transform interurban mobility with curious looking buses that help to combat global warming and the lack of green spaces in cities.

Alarcón has devised buses that double as "mobile greenhouses", as he explained on his website. His idea is to use the space available on the buses to grow plants, shrubs and small trees, turning them into "an itinerant oasis" in the middle of cities.

According to the artist, these buses could contribute to reducing environmental impact, as their vegetation would help to absorb carbon dioxide and thus improve air quality. The benefits also include the feeling of naturalness and peace that would be transmitted to users on their journeys.

According to Alarcón, as an enclosed structure, a bus is ideal for creating a controlled environment similar to a greenhouse. Moreover, thanks to transparent or translucent bubbles made of materials such as glass, or polycarbonate, sunlight can penetrate, so the plants can photosynthesise.

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