From the end of the 1960s to the beginning of the 1970s, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union produced as an not altogether secondary effect, a particular influence on terrestrial design culture. Starting with the fundamental vision of metabolic Japanese architecture, founded on micro-living cells derived from those of spacecraft, the technology and imagery emerging from the Cosmos managed to define a new imagery, one able to change the rules of modernity, that up until then had been quite static. Today, as we enter a real second space age with the race to conquer Mars, it seems that we are already witnessing a renewed interest in products developed for Space, not only on the part of architects and designers but also research-led manufacturers. Of these, one that stands out in particular is Lema, a key player in the design of made-to-measure storage cupboards, founded in 1970, right in the midst of the first space race.

The first in Italy to launch back in the 1980s a revolutionary ‘tailor-made’ programme of production and assembly, the Armadio al Centimetro, ‘wardrobes to the centimetre’, Lema today are setting new design standards for the sector with their Air Cleaning System: a exclusive patented device that is once more revolutionising the design of the wardrobe. Conceived no longer as a merely passive container, the wardrobe with Air Cleaning System assumes for the first time an active role in the sanitisation of clothing, shoes and other personal items stored inside it. The solution developed by Lema is based on innovative Photocatalytic Oxidation technology, originally developed for sanitising aerospace environments. Without affecting the aesthetics, the Lema Air Cleaning System is placed at the top of the ‘centimetre wardrobes’ in the versions with hinged, folding and flush doors.

The result of over a year of study, the Lema Air Cleaning System works thanks to the interaction of a special nanotechnology, activated via the action of a UV lamp. Through a natural active ingredient, the photochemical reaction generated enables the destruction of all the polluting substances, bacteria and moulds that often proliferate in enclosed, dark and poorly ventilated spaces, purifying the inside of the closet and eliminating over 90% of bad odours found on clothes and shoes. These latter in fact often end up impregnated by poor quality and unhygienic air as well as the surfaces of outdoor environments, settings for frenetic everyday activity. Offices, public transport, shopping centres, restaurants, hotels, gyms are often contaminated as a result of inadequate air changes that cause the production of bacteria, allergens, moulds, carbon monoxide, fine particles. Acting like a genuine “quarantine” space, Lema Air Cleaning System thus protects our living spaces from invasion by aliens.