[ CASE STUDY ]
The Plant-Inspired Air Purifier
KORU is a hybrid air purifier and smart planter that leverages nature's air-purifying power alongside advanced filtration technology. Inspired by NASA research on plant-based air purification, KORU enhances indoor air quality through a multi-stage filtration system while also nurturing a living plant through automated watering and environmental monitoring. The Indiegogo campaign surpassed 1000% of its funding goal, raising over $110,000 USD.
Industry
Sustainable Design
Year
2020
Areas of Expertise
Sustainable Design•Smart Home•AI•Crowdfunding
[ THE PRODUCT ]
A purifier and a self-watering planter in one body. It looks like a plant pot because that is the point: the people it was designed for would never put an air purifier in their living room, but they already own plants.
Sold in five colourways with a cork or solid wood base, between 379 and 399 EUR, with a three-year warranty.
[ HOW IT WORKS ]
Room air is drawn in at the joint between the shell and the base, all the way round, in the lower third of the object. It meets the fan, a washable photocatalytic filter under UV light and the roots, then leaves through the ring around the plant. Nothing on the outside reads as a vent, which is the whole point of putting a purifier under a pot.
OUTLET
The ring around the plant
Nothing outside reads as a vent
AROUND THE ROOTS
Up the cavity, through the basket
Its slotted wall lets the air reach the roots
FILTER
Photocatalytic filter under UV
Washable, rinsed every 2 to 3 months
FAN
Ultra silent fan, four modes
Boost, auto, silent, off
INTAKE
The joint between shell and base
All the way round, in the lower third
Reservoir and pump
4 to 6 weeks per fill
Six sensors
Light, air quality, temperature, humidity, soil moisture, water level
[ THE WATER LOOP ]
The other machine in the body is a self-watering planter. Follow the water from the base to the roots.
One fill, drawn as a loop
The full circle is six weeks; the base lasts at least four, and the orange marks the refill window.
The owner picks the plant in the app, among 150+ supported, and tops the base up every four to six weeks.
Basket and base where they sit in the body, one scale; the air machine between them is left out. The tube is a schematic run up the side: its route inside the body is not shown.
[ THE WATER LOOP ]
The other machine in the body is a self-watering planter. The base holds the water, a pump lifts it to nozzles on the rim of the slotted basket, a soil sensor in the root ball says when, and a level sensor knows what is left. The owner picks the plant in the app, among 150+ supported, and tops the base up every four to six weeks.
One fill, drawn as a loop: the full circle is six weeks; the base lasts at least four, and the orange marks the refill window.
Basket and base where they sit in the body, one scale; the air machine between them is left out. The tube is a schematic run up the side: its route inside the body is not shown.
RESERVOIR
The water sits in the base
4 to 6 weeks per fill
PUMP
Lifts it to the rim
Run by what the sensors read
WATERING NOZZLES
On the rim of the basket
Straight onto the soil
SOIL SENSOR
In the root ball
Reads the moisture, closes the loop
LEVEL SENSOR
In the reservoir
Reads what is left
[ INSIDE ]
A purifier wants air moving through it. A self-watering planter wants water sitting still. Both had to fit under a living plant, on a side table, with no external grille to hide the airflow path.
Air purification
Plant care
Air purification
Plant care
[ WHAT ONMOTIO DID ]
Botany Labs arrived in July 2020 with a brand model, two personas and a conviction. There was no product: no volume, no internal layout, no idea whether a purifier and a watering system could share one body at that size.
We fixed the architecture everything else had to fit inside, drew the volume for injection molding, specified the materials, and produced the renders and animations the launch ran on. Five months from the first meeting to a physical prototype.
Jul 2020
The preliminary study of 28 July 2020: eco-design material routes, from bio compounds and bioplastics to recycled and durable design, and four moodboards.
Aug 2020
Our product architecture, presented with pre-concept 1 on 17 August 2020: shell, root cavity, fan and filter stack, reservoirs in the base.
Aug 2020
Three pre-concepts presented on 17 August 2020: a soft cylinder on a light base, a ribbed square, a perforated metal square; the first went forward.
Aug 2020
Pre-concept 1 refined from 26 August 2020: base width, shell dynamics and height studied in turn, leading to the final V6 design of 2 October.
Nov 2020
Scene renders briefed on 26 November 2020 and delivered from December: KORU in its color configurations, set in living rooms and bedrooms.
Dec 2020
Prototype files issued on 23 December 2020: top shell, structure, water tank, wood base and diffuser in CAD, with bill of materials and color configurations.
We started from what Botany Labs brought in July 2020: a brand model, a pitch deck and the CAD of their internal pot module. Our seven-page preliminary study of 28 July set out the material routes for an eco-designed object, from cork, coffee ground and rice husk compounds to PLA and PBS bioplastics, recycled materials and durable design. Four moodboards followed, biomaterials, bioplastic, metal and organic, and the client's feedback on them framed the pre-concepts.
We fixed the architecture everything else had to fit inside, drew the volume for injection molding, specified the materials, and produced the renders and animations the launch ran on. Five months from the first meeting to a physical prototype.
Three calls that shaped it
Silhouette
A soft cylinder that reads as a plant pot
instead ofA vented tower with an external grille
No visible grille meant routing the air path through the body itself, under a living plant, in a volume small enough for a side table.
Filter
Photocatalytic, washable, nothing to replace
instead ofDisposable cartridges on a subscription
A filter that destroys pollutants rather than trapping them never clogs. It is what let KORU promise no consumables, and it closed off the recurring revenue most purifiers depend on.
Base
Cork or solid wood against an ABS body
instead ofA single-material shell, easier to tool
More parts, more interfaces and a visible joint that has to hold its line across five finishes. That is the price of reading as furniture instead of as electronics.
[ THE WORK ]
[ WHERE IT WENT ]
KORU ONE crowdfunded, went into production and sold for four years. In November 2025 a production unit arrived at the studio, five years after the first sketch. Most hardware concepts never get that far.
With ONMOTIO we found the perfect Design partner for our project KORU. Clement was leading our project in a very structured, transparent and professional way. Great communication and the result speaks for itself. KORU is a piece of art. Thank you so much for you awesome work. By the way, the renders are often confused with product photos.
Friedrich Eickhoff
CEO of Botany Labs, PlantKORU
[ THE SAME TEAM ]
This project needed several disciplines that usually sit at several different suppliers. Doing them under one roof is what stops a good concept from arriving at a factory that cannot quote it.
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