WE GROW FRANCE
Establish
In 1789, during the French Revolution, the right to property was enshrined: “property being an inviolable and sacred right, no one may be deprived of it […]”. It was conceived as one of the fundamental conditions of the freedom of the modern individual. One of the conditions of their autonomy, of their capacity for initiative and development. Everyone can, through their projects, add their stone to the common edifice.
In a world where institutions are faltering, we want to give every person who wishes it that plot of concrete, real autonomy that Article 17 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen calls “property”.
A plot of concrete autonomy.
Both as an asset, and as architecture.
That is to say, the unconditional freedom to enjoy a home of one’s own.
A family nest.
A garden.
A vegetable patch.
A neighbourhood.
At Villes Vivantes, we believe that our work today consists in helping everyone to develop this material infrastructure, which is a foundation for freedom, dignity and fulfilment. An operational freedom. Situated, built, and anchored in reality.
Enabling a French person to house their children, to take in a parent on their land, to create a rental income for themselves, is to give them the means to own their choices. To give them the means to fulfil some of their ambitions and, should the need arise, to be able to help their loved ones.
Multiply
France has some 20 million houses built on 20 million plots.
Through the know-how that Villes Vivantes is developing, each of these plots can be shared, subdivided, planted and gardened. Each of them can accommodate one, two, three or four additional housing units. And their adjoining gardens.
A student flat with a terrace, a small house for a young couple, a single-level home for grandma and grandpa… through extension, upward extension, renovation, reconfiguration, infill construction.
The options are many. Their number, their relevance and their chances of coming to fruition to meet the needs and aspirations of French people are proportional to our know-how.
As we see it today, in the light of the experience we have built up over the last 15 years, the France of 20 million detached houses represents, at the very least, a potential of 40 million additional homes through gentle densification.
40 million homes with private gardens can be created without urban sprawl and without fundamentally changing the character of places. That is, more than the total number of homes in France in 2026 (39 million).
France has 30 million households. A little over half of households (18 million) own their main residence.
➔ We have the room and the means for far more of us to own our main residence.
A little over half of households (17 million) have a private garden adjoining their main residence.
➔ We have the room and the means for far more of us to enjoy a private garden every day.
A little over one household in ten (3 million) owns one of the country’s second homes, which provide more than two thirds of France’s tourist accommodation capacity.
➔ We have the room and the means for far more of us to have a place to recharge in the green, in every part of France, in the form of a second home or a short-term rental.
The first virtue of such a multiplication of options for French people would be that everyone could live where they concretely need, and deeply wish, to live.
That means: fewer unwanted journeys, lower CO2 emissions, less urban sprawl, a greater capacity for densification, adaptation and profound transformation of the parts of the country that will be the most densely populated. And in parallel: opportunities for reconfiguration and regeneration for the least dense parts of the country.
It is not about trying to change people’s behaviour.
Nor about forcing them into trade-offs that go against their nature.
But on the contrary, about opening up their options so that they are freer.
Free to choose where they live.
But also to transform it.
To give shape to their living environment.
And, ultimately, to become its authors.
It is also, and perhaps above all, to give them back a drive. The drive of someone who takes their place in society, who takes on a responsibility, who sees the fruit of their labour take shape before their eyes — and before the eyes of their loved ones. The drive of someone who can, one day, look at what they have built and feel proud of it. And build confidence.
We believe that everyone’s capacity to concretely transform their living environment, to adapt it so as to live in it and envisage their future there, will be one of the decisive levers for building the France to come.
By moving,
➔ from a form of democracy of consultation,
➔ to a form of democracy of action.
A democracy in which decisions to adapt and transform the living environment are distributed organically. And accessible to the greatest number.
France, its landscapes, its ways of life and its economy are to be built rather than chosen. To be built by everyone, according to their projects. Project by project. Starting from a certain base of autonomy, security — and freedom.
Build
House extensions.
Renovations and reconfigurations of existing buildings. Upward extensions.
Construction of new homes. Plot divisions.
One plot at a time.
One project after another.
Always tailor-made.
Every year, the Villes Vivantes teams give 1,500 French households back the power to adapt, reconfigure and transform their living environment.
Our goal?
To reach 15,000 households supported every year. To make each project the tailor-made answer to a personal need. And to ensure that each project is also a contribution to the great ecological and social transformation led by local authorities.
Unite
We have called this urbanism: organic urbanism.
It is not about consultation. Nor participation. Nor an improvement on what is already being done.
Organic urbanism, the kind we have been patiently building for 15 years, is a radical change of method.
In BIMBY, BUNTI and BAMBA operations:
✼ residents become the project owners of their own housing projects,
✼ and the local authority becomes the conductor of hundreds of micro-projects led by its residents.
Through the work of Villes Vivantes:
✼ Residents are no longer consulted — they decide for themselves;
✼ They no longer answer surveys — they have homes built according to their needs;
✼ They are no longer made aware of the politics of land scarcity — they densify because it makes sense in their life projects;
✼ They no longer ask for green spaces — they plant and garden, for the pleasure of it.
Through our work, again:
✼ Local authorities are no longer the last to know about their residents’ projects — they anticipate them;
✼ They are no longer seen as a blocking power that breeds frustration — they help and they support, before processing applications;
✼ They are no longer powerless in the face of climate and social challenges — they now have new levers on their side: the thousands of projects led by their residents.
In short: residents are no longer just neighbours, or mere applicants seeking planning approval — they are the local authority’s new, essential operational partners in its great ecological, territorial and social project.
In organic urbanism, as practised by Villes Vivantes, local authorities and residents work as a team.
Operate
The operator that enables the local authority to cooperate, to team up with hundreds, thousands of residents every year, without getting into a muddle, is Villes Vivantes.
We have built up know-how, set up and tested processes, developed and iterated methods, and designed dashboards.
We have built a profession. Or rather, a dual profession:
✼ That of the “incremental architect”, designer and developer of thousands of micro-projects led by residents,
✼ And, alongside it, that of the “flow urbanist”, who makes these thousands of micro-projects possible and uses them as leverage to achieve the public policy objectives led by the local authority.
Thus,
✼ reducing greenhouse gas emissions,
✼ halting the land take of new natural, agricultural and forest land,
✼ adapting areas and the built heritage to climate change,
✼ greening cities and protecting biodiversity,
✼ producing a diverse, well-located housing supply,
…are no longer the business of elected officials and their departments alone.
Through the work of Villes Vivantes, these major policies, these major objectives, concretely become the business of all residents.