Strasbourg, France
Converting Paris from a “City of Light” to a “City of Green” has long been the dream of Belgium architect Vincent Callebaut.
For years, eco-visionary Vincent Callebaut Architectures, the Paris-based practice, has designed and developed a number of environmentally efficient building concepts, which integrate greenery and renewable resources.
His latest project is for a garden footbridge in Paris, to be known as ‘the green line’ that “generates its own energy from renewable sources, recycles its own waste and wastewater, and optimizes its needs thanks to Information and Communication Technologies,” states Callebaut.
Inspired by a fish skeleton, the “Green Line” proposal links the Bercy Village to the Masséna district in Paris, restoring urban connections and connecting the 12th and 13th arrondissements.
The tree-packed bridge would also be used for growing fruit and vegetables, with an ambitious array of sustainable tech like solar power and wind power included for good measure.
The Green Line would include 20,000 plants, trees, and shrubs
The program contains training rooms, catering, commerce, co-working spaces, business incubation, spaces for vegetable gardens and orchards on the roof, spaces for amphibian gardens on the quays.
The architecture generates its own energy from renewable sources, recycles its own waste and wastewater, and optimizes its needs thanks to Information and Communication Technologies.
The design promotes social and cultural innovation through flexible and mutable shared spaces, which adapt to the needs of new generations and to new constantly evolving uses.
The bridge’s panoramic rooftop and horticultural greenhouses host 3,500 m² of vegetable gardens and orchards. In fact, in permaculture, 25 kilos of fruits and vegetables/m2/year (87,500 kilos/year) will be co-cultivated in this space.
The design becomes a truly edible landscape dedicated to “Parisculteurs” (Paris farmers). It aims to make citizens aware of eco-gastronomy and alternative consumption.
A hybrid variant of the “Bow-String” typologies, the structure is developed like a 220 m fish skeleton.
The primary structure is made up of two double arches, while the secondary structure is made up of a triplex of trays suspended from the first structure.
The Green Line advocates ecological exemplarity through sustainable management of air and water in urban areas.
In addition to its densely-vegetated roof, the project aims to establish a large 8,500-square-meter amphibian garden.
Thanks to the roots of lagoon plants, the garden also plays an essential role in capturing polluted water from the Seine.
In total, 12,000 square meters of new green spaces and phyto-remediation lagoons will take root in the neighborhood to make it breathe better and promote the development of an endemic biodiversity corridor.
Vincent Callebaut wrote: “Our approach is open and co-constructed with as many stakeholders as possible, whose opinions will be widely taken into account during the consultation phases. The Green Line will have a social role for its users.”
“It promotes exchanges because it is a place of relaxation, contemplation, and well-being.”
Architects: Vincent Callebaut Architectures
Client: Ceetrus
