Make Waves With Your Workout at This Floating Gym on the Seine

Next time you’re in Paris, you may find yourself itching to exercise. Not because you’ve been eating nothing but soft cheeses and baguettes, but because you could be working out with the best view of the city, in the form of a floating gym. As Architectural Digest reports, the design firm Carlo Ratti Associati has designed something called the Paris Navigating Gym, an exercise facility on a riverboat on the Seine.

When you board the 66-foot-long boat, you’ll be doing more than just pumping up your heart rate—you'll also be powering the vessel. It uses Technogym ARTIS machines that recycle energy to turn the bikes into a power source for the boat. In case gym-goers can’t pedal quite hard enough, there will also be solar panels on the roof.

The floating gym will have room for up to 45 people on cross trainers and stationary bikes. It'll be open air in the summer, and covered by glass in the winter. Inside, you’ll be able to face out toward the city and see not just the views, but an augmented reality screen loaded with data like how much energy you’re contributing, and environmental conditions on the river.

That’s assuming that the project ever gets built. The Paris Navigating Gym is just a concept now, but the design was a response to an open call for designs for the city of Paris, so perhaps someone will be interested in funding it.

All images courtesy Carlo Ratti Associati