15-MINUTES CITY
in Paris
Paris has developed from the small island of Île de la Cité into a vast metropolis stretching far beyond the 20th arrondissement. Alongside its many historic buildings, the city is actively developing car-free streets, green climate-adapted urban environments, extensive renovation projects and new urban districts on the city’s periphery.
TRANSFORMATION IN PARIS
Transformation of 1960s and 1970s buildings — and historic monuments
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Car parks are being transformed into housing, including through the integration of light wells in long, dark parking spaces. You can learn, for example, about the working process involved in selecting which elements can be reused, based on collaboration between the architectural studio and engineers.
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After Covid, working patterns changed — also in Paris. Ministries and office buildings have been transformed into housing with mixed-use functions. You can gain insight into several award-winning projects and hear presentations from the architectural studios and engineers behind them.
Grand Palais
After decades of renovation, the iconic Grand Palais has reopened, including underfloor heating across the vast floor area based on energy-efficient solutions, an expanded arrival area and a modernised garden landscape.
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau fashion houses and department stores from around 1900 have also reopened after 10 years of renovation, involving countless craft companies and restoration specialists. You get to go inside and gain insight into the working processes, interdisciplinary collaborations and project management demands involved when a project stretches over many years.
Notre Dame
The renovation of Notre-Dame. You can, for example, meet the carpentry company that reconstructed the historic church towers with new timber structures and gain insight into their restoration work.
the 15-Minutes City
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The 15-minute city strategy was developed by Franco-Colombian urban planner Carlos Moreno.
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It is partly a response to a socially divided Paris and to a mobility culture where people cross the city from north to south to get to work. Instead, the city is moving towards smaller, more self-sufficient urban environments within the wider metropolis.
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This means, for example, that social housing is being established in more affluent arrondissements. Car traffic is being reduced in central urban zones. Cycle lanes are being expanded or created, and car-free areas are being introduced. In 2025, the city decided that 500 streets are to be transformed into car-free, green zones. Learn from the authorities how policy can encourage more people to cycle and walk. If Paris can do it, so can everyone.
Urban development: the green city, the Olympic city and the urban district around the Bibliothèque Nationale
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Paris’ eco-district is a European model for circular urban development. Here, biodiversity plans, climate adaptation and energy efficiency come together in an ambitious masterplan for minimising the CO₂ footprint of an entire urban district.
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The Olympic Village, where many thousands of athletes lived during the 2024 Olympic Games, was established in a former peripheral area marked by shipbuilding industries and poverty. The ambition to lift the district while the eyes of the world were watching was exceptionally high. Several of the housing structures are built in timber/CLT and designed as flexible constructions that can be transformed from small single rooms for athletes into family housing, student housing and other uses.
Biblioteque Nationale
The area around the Bibliothèque Nationale. Here, you can gain insight into how a new urban district has been developed over the past 20 years on a former railway site. It is a well-considered example of “the mixed city”, with educational institutions, different types of housing, cultural facilities and strong metro connections.
Together, it offers strong examples of urban densification, recreational areas and changing ideals in urban planning practice.
Timber construction and modular design
Learn about “design for disassembly”, where timber modules can be reused for other functions.
The projects include timber/CLT construction in the Olympic Village, a project outside Paris, a rectorate and a new high-rise housing project in the city centre. Some of these have been developed as prototypes in collaboration with various actors from the French timber industry, from timber producers to engineers, architectural studios, developers, municipalities and others, in connection with the Olympic Village.
WHAT IS THE VALUE?
You hear presentations from the developer, architectural studio and engineers behind the projects, get inside the buildings and gain insight into the structures, construction process and interdisciplinary collaborations.
INTERESTED IN A PROGRAM
Practical Information
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Flights and hotel accommodation through a travel agency we collaborate with
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A programme with in-depth project visits, including presentations and dialogue with local professionals, such as developers, timber producers, architectural studios, project managers, landscape architects, energy specialists, resident group representatives and others
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Local urban development guides who place the projects and urban districts in context, from their historical background to current trends
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Organisation of lunches, dinners and other practical arrangements