Paris is always reinventing, and to meet the challenges of these changes, the whole city must be prepared to adapt. Classic Paris, with its red-awning cafés and limestone-and-iron buildings, will always represent the City of Light, but the most curious visitors will be entranced by the capital's metamorphosis. To showcase these developments, here's a taste of 9 urban renewal projects that will represent Paris' future. In Paris, regarding icons, innovations, and ecology, it's already tomorrow.
A new panoramic point of view
The heartbeat of Paris is the center of the city. On the banks of the Seine there's a site unknown to the general public—currently, they are the Ateliers Parisiens d'Urbanisme (Parisian Urban Workshops) which occupy 40,000 m² (430,556 ft²) of the building. Transforming the building without denaturing its spirit is one of the big themes of this project, "Morland mixed with the Capital." Hotels, offices, gyms and shops will decorate this space in the future, giving it multiple functions. Hot tip for panorama lovers: at the very top of the building, you can get a 180 degree view of the city!
Featuring sports
A bridge between Paris and Vanves, the project named "Sport, nature and woods" tears down the border between Paris and its neighboring communities. This large building is intended as space to live and practice sports in the south of the capital. In the dynamic days before the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the 2,500 m² (26909 ft²) will be dedicated to physical activities. It will be the place to be for fitness fans.
The rehabilitation of Les Halles Pouchard
Formerly dedicated to the fabrication of steel pipes, Les Halles Pouchard has been offered a new lease on life. Ideally located on the Ourcq Canal in northern Paris, with its feet in the water, the "Great Green Spaces" project is a true transition from former industrial space into an innovative community space. The building will welcome a hotel, a theatre, art galleries and restaurants. There's no doubt that culture and architecture fans will fall head over heels for the colossal 100,000 m² (1,076,391 ft²) project.
"At the green" Porte de La Chapelle
Between the Porte de la Chapelle and the Parc de la Villete, Éole-Évangile forms a great triangle of nearly 13,000 m² (139,931 ft²). The project? Transform the space into a new neighborhood, a model of urban ecology and sustainable development—that's the principle that will guide the creation of these residences, offices, businesses, and cultural and athletic spaces. A great garden of 4,700 m² (50,590 ft²), open to the public, will also be created, forming a flowered pathway between the different sites. It takes the French concept of flânerie (a sort of poetic wandering) into the 21st century!
"Creating cultures" at La Courneuve
Former factories of industrial boilers, the industrial wasteland "Babcock" in northern Paris offers a gigantic space of 52,000 m² (559,723 ft²) to welcome the "Fabrication of cultures" project. The ambition: pay homage to the past and apply the technologies of the future. Converted into cultural and athletic spaces, housing, commercial and workspaces, this former wasteland wants to be a catalyst of creation for Greater Paris thanks to the "Augmented Image," a new motor of cultural innovation of the metropolis.
An urban farm in northern Paris
The vast international Chapelle site has begun their first phase to open the doors to goods in Paris. The second phase will inaugurate the sports rooms, lodgings with a view of Sacré-Cœur, commercial enterprises, and above all, an urban farm of 7000 m² (75,347 ft²) installed on the roof of the building. The objective of this project (named "Mushroof"): provide neighborhood traders with locally grown products, sustainably grown. Soon, we'll all be going crazy over the 100% La Chapelle products!
A haven for connected entrepreneurs
Here Paris is preparing itself as a center for future enterprises. Here 2030, the immense site of Vitry-sur-Seine in the south of Paris will incarnate the model of a productive 21st century city. The "Ardoines Station center" is positioning itself specifically on digital technologies, with the welcome of FabLabs, the 3.0 event workshop. All of this will be housed in a true haven for connected entrepreneurs, with green terraces and animated kinetic façades.
By France.fr
The magazine of the destination unravels an unexpected France that revisits tradition and cultivates creativity. A France far beyond what you can imagine…
