Architects Plan Brave New Paris

Paris may be getting a facelift, the Telegraph reports. Nicolas Sarkozy invited 10 leading architects to cook up Grand Paris 2030, giving them "the absolute freedom to dream." Sarkozy aims to open up the city to its suburbs, shorten intra-city commutes, and create vast green spaces. The architects will now present their plans to the public for debate.

Some of the architects’ ideas:

• Create an “archipelago” of four economic “buds” around Paris and move a massive train station outside the city.
• Build the “Grand Paris of Poets” in a flower shape, complete with new cultural landmarks.
• Create 20 sustainable towns, each with a population of 500,000; double the number of forests; and plant fields outside the city so urbanites can farm their own food.

(More Paris stories.)