Hopefully the U.S. Takes a Cue From This Green Paris Apartment Building

If your Lincoln Log set got a degree in Environmental Studies

March 10, 2017 9:00 am

Even though Plug-in City 75 sounds like a beta version of The Matrix, it actually has nothing to do with kung fu Keanu. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less surreal: a massive wooden sculptural addition to a Parisian apartment building doesn’t go unnoticed.

The “plug-in” concept by French architect Stéphane Malka is designed to improve living conditions and increase space for the residents. To achieve this, lightweight, bio-sourced wood boxes of varying size will be prefabricated and grafted to the building.

Plug-in City (4 images)

In a gesture deserving of Apartment Building Proprietor of the Year Award, the co-owners hired Malka because the apartments were “too small and gloomy,” according to his website. Once installed, the tenants will be able to use them for anything their coeurs desire. We’re thinking tiki bar, especially with the added foliage.

But the owners of the Seine-adjacent property have another motive behind the redesign: energy efficiency. An admirable motive, to be sure, but a necessary one as Paris adopts environmentally-friendly regulations (can someone fax those to the White House?). Malka planned his additions specifically to lessen the effects of thermal bridges, poor insulation and the old standard windows.

Currently in progress, the project is expected to finish construction in mid-2018 according to New Atlas.

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