We are convinced urban transition won’t come from one big idea, but from thousands of small, situated actions.
1. That is what we are trying implementing in France, through a new kind of public-private service.
At Villes Vivantes, we work with local authorities to support citizen-led housing projects — one home, one garden, one block at a time.
Today, we are involved in over 2’000 of these micro-projects every year across France. And we are building the tools, methods, and skills to be ready to scale that number to 200’000 per year.
This is what we call gentle densification: small, contextual, often invisible changes that bring new life to existing neighborhoods — without demolition, big project, or rigid planning.
These are not anecdotal.
They are the core of tomorrow’s urban R&D.
To explore this path, we have developed programs like BIMBY and BUNTI, allowing us to work hand in hand with local authorities to spark and implement citizen-led projects.
2. We provide a multifaceted design and coaching service, helping residents imagine, decide, plan, and contract with professionnals to build and remodel their homes. We are paid by results: homes actually built, not hours billed.
It’s experimental.
It’s complex.
It’s emerging — project by project.
Here’s a snapshot of what came into our inboxes in just one day:
7:22 am — We want to renovate a 15th-century presbytery with solar and geothermal energy and phytoremediation.
8:09 am — My mother owns a plot in a development zone. How can we sell it ?
9:12 am — We are renting a house and want to buy it, then add a ground-floor bedroom and bathroom.
11:37 am — We Just bought a poorly insulated house. We’d like to remove walls and renovate it.
12:02 pm — We’re thinking about building a small rental at the back of the garden.
1:53 pm — I own a small building — could I add a few units in the yard?
2:20 pm — Split the land in two or three? We need help to discuss with a neighbor who may offer an access to the new plots.
3:08 pm — I own 2’700 square meters. What’s the best way to divide it ?
5:42 pm — I own half of a 3-unit property. Can I split it and build something new ?
9:08 pm — I own a 1’000 square meters plot. Could I detach 430 square meters ?
3. Scaling this model means inventing a new kind of architectural role.
Not to replace the architect — but to create a complementary path, like general medicine leads to surgery.
A role focused on project flows, delivered by orchestrated teams, equipped with new tools and advanced knowledge systems.
Able to open new options and to support thousands of deeply personalized transformations — with care, quality, and architectural scalability.
4. Organic urbanism isn’t chaos. It’s a system.
Still in development. Already delivering results. And prepared to scale.
From one plot and one house to multiple plots and multiple homes.
If just 1% of French homeowners engaged in such a project every year, France’s housing needs would be met.
What
we dig
