Architect Vincent Callebaut ’s latest project balances public galleries, meeting rooms and gathering spaces over canals and abandoned railroad tracks in the 19th Parisian district. The prototype uses green technologies and techniques but is more than just an example of sustainable design.

Looking somewhat like an energy saving light bulb and a mouldy spaceship, the organically designed scheme has two components namely a tower and a pod like structure which looks like it has docked on the railway bridge spanning the canal.

The pod which will be known as the Solar Drop will have a 250 square metre photovoltaic blue roof which will capture the sun and convert it into energy for the pod, the main body of the pod is made up of polyester fibres which is strengthened along its main profiles with steel banding. The whole structure is then covered in titanium dioxide which reacts with ultra violet light to reduce pollution.

As an auto cleaning building it will also be able to absorb and recycle by means of photo catalytic technology the smog cloud generated by the huge amounts of traffic on the near by Parisian belt, hence the name Antismog - clever eh?

Other technologies allow the pod to be totally energy sufficient while two planted arches over the roof of the pod will collect rainwater which will service the needs of the of the exhibition, meeting and café space within the pod which are arranged around a plant purified lagoon.

The tower will reach 45 metres in height and is a wind tower. The core of the tower will be covered in digital screens which will constantly beam the news out whilst other panels will be tactile in nature. A ribbon like banister unfurls itself down the length of the tower the main body of which is moves in accordance with the direction of the dominant wind.

A second polyester fibre structure will be covered with greenery and punctuated with slits which hold the wind turbines. At the top of the tower a suspended public garden will offer spectacular views of Paris.

As a prototype in environmental building and technologies the project could lead the way forward for future sustainable building worldwide but only if it gets approval, which for now remains to be seen

Anti-Smog is thus a didactic prototype of ecological experimentations. Solar Drop and Wind Tower implement the most advanced technologies in the auto-sufficient construction to better reveal the applications of the contemporary society. Its energetic results are positive and enable to assure not only the functioning of the centre but also the nocturnal lighting of the banks of the second Bassin de la Villette. Moreover, this project aims at reducing the atmospheric pollution of the area by capturing the CO2 and thus improves the quality of the air. It is a play project, an urban and truly live graft. In osmosis with its surroundings, it is an architecture that interacts completely with its context that is climatic, chemical, kinetic or social to better reduce our ecological print in urban area!