Callebaut describes Anti-Smog as a ‘parasite‘, attaching itself to the ‘post-industrial urban structure of the Petite Ceinture and the canal de l’Ourcq in the 19th Parisian district’. In response to the pollution [smog] in Paris, and the industrial area’s contribution to this problem, Anti-Smog is a ‘green’ project - promoting sustainable design + development through its use of green technologies and building techniques.

In this case the ‘green’ technologies are not simply an attempt to sustain this one building alone, but instead to actually ‘de-pollute’ the Parisian environment. Quite the task to accomplish - but how?

ship] starts off with 250 square meters of photovoltaic panels. Next, the white, ship-like ‘body’ of the building is coated in titanium dioxide [TiO2] in it’s anatase form - which is self cleaning, and can aid in the reduction of local air pollution through it’s reaction with ultraviolet radiation [I think the argument here is that when organic particulates in the air come into contact with the building the TiO2 acts as a catalyst, causing them to break down - thus diminishing the amount of these particulates in the air].

Inside the ‘Drop’ are public meeting and function rooms and a large exhibition space - all organized around a central courtyard/garden - a ‘phyto-purified aquatic lagoon’.

The second part of Anti-Smog is the Wind Tower [below] - a spiraling public art gallery, capped by a ‘garden in the sky’. The building skin is a layering of a number of materials and technologies, including ‘green’ plant elements and Darrieus machines [wind turbines] to take advantage of the local prevailing winds to create renewable energy.