The heart of Paris’ 13th district has been reimagined as a thriving sustainable ecosystem. The Reinventer Paris competition recently named a trio of green eco-conscious buildings winner of the Paris Rive Gauche site M5A2. Designed by XTU Architects in collaboration with BPD Marignan, SNI Group, and MU Architecture, the winning design, called In Vivo, seeks to inject urban greenhouses, vertical forests, and even a solar-powered algae biofacade into the mixed-use block.

Reinventer Paris, micro-algae, algae facade, XTU Architects, BPD Marignan, SNI Group, MU Architecture, In Vivo, sustainable paris, paris, urban gardeningAs one of the 23 winners of the Reinventer Paris competition, In Vivo explores how to create the “Paris of tomorrow” through resilient architecture. In Vivo’s eco-friendly buildings are draped in greenery and will house 13,000 square meters of housing for students and young researchers; 1,200 square meters of public space; a 255-square-meter cafe, a 1,000-square-meter research lab; and over 2,000 square meters for urban gardening.

Related: Lush green oasis and rooftop farm will reinvent Paris streets

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The project comprises three main buildings: the Tree House, a structure planted with mature trees on multiple floors; a Plant House, which will be dedicated to urban farming and offer 48 SNI-managed intermediate rental housing units; and the Algo House, which will be coated with an algae biofacade and house students and young researchers. The Algo House’s eye-catching algae facade uses micro-algae and photobioreceptors to generate heat as renewable energy. That energy will be stored and used for domestic hot water and heating and help slash energy consumption to below 48kWh per square-meter per year.

+ XTU Architects

Via ArchDaily

Images via XTU Architects