Lush green oasis and rooftop farm will reinvent Paris streets

via inhabitat by Lucy Wang

The Paris of tomorrow will be a whole lot greener. Jacques Ferrier Architecture (JFA), Chartier Dalix Architectes, and SLA Landskab won the international design competition “Reinventer Paris” with the Multi-Layered City, a proposal to weave urban farming and greenery into the Boulevard Périphérique ring road. The network of gardens will bring the public closer to nature, contribute to air purification, and beautify the city.

Launched by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Reinventer Paris is an urban competition that seeks to transform the way Parisians live, work, and play across 23 key sites. 23 winners were recently chosen for each of those sites, many of who include world-renowned architecture practices such as Sou Fujimoto and David Chipperfield. “We [launched] this call for innovative urban projects in order to prefigure what the Paris of tomorrow might be,” said Hidalgo. “The winners will then be able to purchase or rent the terrains in order to carry out their projects while simultaneously conducting an urban experiment on an unparalleled scale.”

JFA’s Multi-Layered City proposal injects greenery into the center of the Boulevard Périphérique. At the center of the ring road is a cluster of mixed-use buildings, which will be connected via a curvaceous and landscaped skywalk. The structures will be topped by a publicly accessible urban farm and garden, which will be dedicated to growing the first crop of Parisian tea. In addition to the rooftop gardens, the buildings will have planted balconies on every floor.

“The Porte des Ternes is welcoming a building that is one-of-a-kind yet respectful of its context, and one that reconnects with the Parisian scale,” said Jacques Ferrier Architecture in a statement. “This generous and open project is designed to enhance the experience of local inhabitants. Here, the ring road becomes a landscaped plaza of Grand Paris (Greater Paris), a public prototype for a new landscape for the Parisian metropolis.”

images via Jacques Ferrier Architecture