A floating gym in Paris is changing the meaning of an "energizing workout."
One of my favorite memories of a long-ago visit to Paris was seeing the Seine filled with open-air excursion boats that leisurely cruise along the city’s famous river. And soon, one of those boats may be looking––and moving––quite a bit differently than the others.
Italian design firm, Carlo Ratti Associati, has unveiled a concept for a floating gym that will make the trek along the Seine thanks to energy harnessed from those using the gym's bicycles, cross-trainers and other equipment. Called the Paris Navigating Gym, the 65-foot long vessel can host 45 people, whose pedaling and stepping motions will be captured as energy for sailing. Additional energy would be supplied by renewables, including photovoltaic cells situated on the gym’s roof.
As noted in a recent Daily Mail article, Carlo Ratti, the founding partner of the design firm and the director of the MIT Senseable City Lab in Boston, said the concept was intended to explore the potential of human power. There’s even experimentation with augmented reality as the floating gym will have AR screens that show gym guests the quantity of energy generated from their workouts as well as the environmental conditions on the Seine thanks to data captured in real-time via sensors embedded throughout the vessel.
The first Paris Navigating Gym is expected to open its doors in Summer 2018.
