Airco creates pop-up store with futuristic pumping station to promote carbon conversion

Brooklyn company Airco has teamed up with design studio Mythology to create a New York concept shop featuring a freeze-dried sandwich, space gear and a motorbike to showcase different aspects of carbon conversion technology.

The carbon conversion company partnered with Mythology to create the pop-up shop in Manhattan's NoHo neighbourhood, where products related to various aspects of Airco's work were displayed.

Carbon conversion is a process that converts CO2 and hydrogen waste into synthetic fuels for re-use.

"We take carbon dioxide, one of the most abundant greenhouse gases on planet Earth, and we combine that inside our reactors with hydrogen," Airco CEO Gregory Constantine told Dezeen, adding that the company is "agnostic" about the input – it can utilise C02 sources from many places, including outputs from agricultural and industrial facilities.

The converted C02 can be used to create synthetic fuels for propulsion and combustion engines, as well as other chemicals.

"We can create a number of chemicals, essentially, and fuels. Those chemicals, such as ethanol and methanol, can be the building blocks for plastics and other things," said Constantine.

However, none of the items created for the pop-up store were made from converted CO2.

Instead, they were designed to highlight Airco's partnerships with companies with massive fuel requirements, such as airline Jet Blue and US agency NASA, through which the company aims to scale up its technology.

The store, which was placed in what used to be an area known for its gasoline pumping stations, featured a futuristic pumping station at its centre.

Creative consultancy Tall Poppy Studio helped to conceptualise the products on display, which included a frieze-dried version of the classic New York bacon, egg and cheese sandwich that sat next to a space helmet designed by local studio Joe Doucet x  Partners.

To represent Airco's collaboration with airlines, Tall Poppy Studio designed a piece of luggage along with a handbag in the shape of vomit bags.

A dry bag and life jacket stood in for the brand's work with the US Navy, while a white, branded motocross dirt bike represented the land-based applications for the fuel.

Mythology designed the store to showcase the products by cladding the walls in moonscape wallpaper and decking them with metal racks on which to display the goods.

The pop-up store's mix of historical context, futuristic materials and fuel was meant to "transport visitors to an experience that marries the past and present; Americana from the heyday of fuel but futuristic through carbon technology advances", according to Airco.

"We wanted to draw attention to the world of fuel, which most people are not thinking about in detail – more specifically, around the opportunity of synthetic fuels," Airco chief creative officer Andrew McKechnie told Dezeen.

The products are being auctioned off online.

Airco has made other products before to highlight its process, including a vodka made from a carbon conversion process.

Other companies that capture carbon for products include cement company Carbicrete in Montreal.

Project credits:

Airco: Gregory Constantine, Andrew McKechnie, John Baker, Jodi Taylor, Chris Thorpe
Creative direction: Tall Poppy, Mythology, Jou Doucet x Partners
Fabrication: Pink Sparrow
Event production: Starkman & Associates
Signage: Duggal Visual Solutions
General contractor: Patrick Conlon
Product development: Colleen Keller
Senior project manager: Auriel Rickard
Director of photography: Danny Garcia
Sound designer: Benjamin Bondy

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