Press Release: Launching of the UTOPIA website

In the form of a unique concept in Portugal, Plako IT presents its project UTOPIA, making it public this Thursday (April 24th), with the launch of the website utopia.plako.net.

The first big official moment of this UTOPIA – Launching Ceremony of the First Stone (or in this case, tire!) - is scheduled for next May 9th.

Plako’s Utopia is the materialization of the technology company’s dream of being based in a space with zero impact on the environment, and to this end, an office complex will be built using nearly two thousand used tires (using a construction technique developed by American Eco-architect Michael Reynolds). The Utopia building will be constructed on a plot of land with more than one hectare in a small village next to the Cávado River, in the municipality of Póvoa de Lanhoso.

To achieve the goal of zero impact on the environment, several measures are planned that go far beyond the construction inspired by Reynolds’ techniques, such as: a studied patch of trees in the space surrounding the building; a vegetable garden capable of meeting most of the canteen’s needs; and more common measures such as the reuse of rainwater for irrigation, solar water heating, micro-generation, recycling, and domotics.

With the motto “We are absurdly optimistic”, one of the major goals that Plako intends to achieve with this project is to infect the common citizen with this optimism, awakening them to the need to take an active stance on environmental preservation.
To help fulfill this goal, bringing its UTOPIA to as many people as possible, it intends to involve as many agents as possible, counting for now with the support of the following institutions: Póvoa de Lanhoso City Hall, Quercus, Braval, School of Engineering and Laboratory of Physics and Construction Technology of University of Minho, iiSBE Portugal, and AEBA.