A London-based architecture and design company co-founded by an Indian has come up with a new solution called "Bubbles" to combat the increasing air pollution in China.
Their project, still in the conceptual stage, would create outdoor green spaces covered by giant bubble-shaped domes in the Chinese cities where adverse environmental conditions mean that people are unable to spend time outdoors without risking their health.
The architectural concept "bubble" will be in the form of a covered botanical garden, retail and office complex under a giant transparent roof.
"Bubbles structure encloses a botanical garden offered a giant balloon with filtered air with controlled temperature and humidity throughout the year," Rajat Sodhi, co-founder of the Orproject, an architecture practice with offices in London, Beijing and New Delhi told the South China Morning Post.
Bubbles is based on the principles of biomimetic architecture, typically lightweight environmental structures inspired by nature.
The geometry of the Bubbles canopy was generated using an algorithm that simulates the development of veins in leaves or in butterfly wings, he said.
"It's just an infrastructure project like building metro stations and parks - it's applicable in every dense, polluted metropolis where there's a need for open, green spaces throughout the year," he said.
"Bubbles could work in Beijing and Shanghai, and in all the major cities of China, and it could work in India in places like Delhi and Mumbai," he said.
It could also work well in cities like Moscow, where the temperature change across winter and summer is minus 20 to plus 20 degrees Celsius, and where green spaces aren't visible.
Sceptics, however, argue that even if sealing off large, climate-controlled spaces of the city was structurally, mechanically and economically feasible, the scenario leaves many city dwellers outside of the Bubble.
