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Parisians will soon be able to live among the
trees. A planned project titled Mille Arbres
(French for “ 1,000 trees”) will transform a parking
lot into a “;oating village in the middle of the forest,” according to Oxo Architects, the organization that designed the multiuse building.
;e tree-covered structure will o;er housing, o;ces, children’s day care, restaurants
and a hotel, and provide a public pedestrian
walkway over the nearby highway. To maximize potential green space, the building will be
shaped like an inverted pyramid.
Urban Treehouse
PROJECT:
Mille Arbres building
LOCATION:
Paris, France
SCHEDULED
COMPLETION:
2022
FULL CIRCLE:
An “energy loop”
will connect the
building and allow
different units to
share energy.
“What we really
want to do is create
a living ecosystem.”
—Manal Rachdi, founder, Oxo Architects,
Paris, France, to Fast Company
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S “Paris is a stone city—there’s not a lot
of trees, not a lot of vegetation,” Manal
Rachdi, founder, Oxo Architects, Paris,
France, told Fast Company. “We wanted
to create this living space surrounded by
nature … connected to the city, but sur-
rounded by nature.”
Greenery will serve more than just aes-
thetic purposes—the foliage-covered roof
is meant to prevent energy leaks. Oxo esti-
mates that construction will cost between
€200 million and €250 million.
