Work has completed on Tribunal de Paris – a tiered skyscraper, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano to become the largest law complex in Europe, reported The Dezeen. Comprising a series of stacked glass volumes, the building will bring together the various activities of the French capital's judiciary system, which had previously been scattered about the city. According to publication, the building is not set to open until April 2018. Renzo Piano Building Workshop won a competition to design Tribunal de Paris in 2010. The long and low ground building is designed as a pedestal for the other three levels to rest upon, with the main entrance located on a 6,000-square-meter plaza on the Avenue de la Porte-de-Clichy. Inside, the 5,500 square-meter space is divided into three atria with room for 50 reception desks to ensure visitors are seen as quickly as possible. Each atrium extends up through the full height of the building, with galleries providing access to rooms above and skylights in the roof to allow natural light to filter through. A total of 90 law courts are housed in the pedestal building, most of which benefit from natural light and are all accessible within minutes from the offices in the volumes above. The buildings above each contain 10 stores of meeting rooms and offices for different departments. The first volume will house the magistrates, the second the public prosecutors, and at the top the presiding judges will occupy the third volume. Each building is separated by landscaped roof terraces planted with trees and vegetation. Solar panels have been attached to the exterior and rainwater is collected. Natural ventilation and the building's thermal inertia contribute to regulating the building's temperature. The Tribunal de Paris will unite the regional court, police court, public prosecution courts and the district courts of each arrondissement. Its location on Paris' northern edge, places it at the intersection between the city's administrative zones and the suburbs. The area is well served by public transport, including a new tramway.

Stefano Boeri Architects “Vertical Forests” continue to take root around the world, with the latest project planned for Paris, reported The Inhabitat. Designed for Villiers sur Marne in east Paris, Forêt Blanche will be a 54-meter-tall tower built predominately of timber. Two thousand trees, shrubs, and plants will cover the wooden facade—a green surface equivalent to a hectare of forest. Forêt Blanche will host residential apartments on the high floors, offices and commercial services in the lower part, with a mix of terraces and balconies on the four sides of the tower. The east and west facing side will allow the passage of sunlight all day, giving natural illumination and ventilation to the apartments and an exceptional panorama on the landscape of central Paris.

Paris city councilors have voted in favor of hotly-contested plans for a giant triangular tower that would be the capital's first modern skyscraper in more than 40 years. After construction 42-storey skyscraper "Tour Triangle" will be third tallest skyscraper in Paris conceding only 324 meter high Eiffel Tower and the 210 meters high Montparnasse Tower. The newest project was designed by Basel-based architects "Herzog & de Meuron", who were the creative brains behind the conversion of London's Bankside Power Station into the Tate Modern art museum and Beijing's 'Bird's Nest' stadium for the 2008 Olympics. Europe's biggest listed property group "Unibail Rodamco" is investing US$ 555 million into the project, which is set to be completed in 2018. Inside, the tower will house a 120-room, four star hotel, a restaurant, a cultural center, and 70,000 square meters of office space. The project was first shown to the public in 2008. At that time the skyscraper construction was impossible, as the laws were restricting tall buildings in Paris. Over the years, laws have changed and the project "Tour Triangle" also a little changed. For example at first the office place was 80 thousand square meters, now it is 70 thousand square meters. According to France 24, Paris city council has approved the construction of a controversial tower block "Tour Triangle". On June 30 the project was given go-ahead after getting 87 votes for and 74 against. The project was rejected by the same body in November 2014 amid accusations that conservative councilors had voted against it merely to block the success of a project supported by Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo. The second vote was carried out in private after Paris' mayor Anne Hidalgo dismissed November's ballot as invalid, claiming inter-party fighting influenced the outcome. Tour Triangle is set to be located in Porte de Versailles on the city's south-western fringe in the Porte de Versailles neighborhood, alongside vast convention halls. Many residents are unhappy, however, at the prospect of having to live next to the tower. Politicians have also criticized the project for not being in line with Paris' housing requirements, or being energy efficient enough. Despite skyscrapers being a common sight in many cities, residents in Paris have strongly opposed them, ever since the 324 meters high Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Universal Exposition. The first and last skyscraper to be built in inner Paris was the 210 meters tall Tour Montparnasse building in 1973.

At first glance, the warm, luminous development proposed for a Paris site doesn't look much different than any other mixed-use project rising in other cities. But this village of high-rises is unique in that it would be made completely from wood-even the 35-story tower at the center. If completed, the skyscraper named Baobab would be largest and tallest wooden structure on the planet, rising above two other wooden buildings currently proposed for Stockholm and Vienna. The architect behind the wooden village is Michael Green, a designer who's been an evangelical voice for wood's revival. And he's not alone. The new development Created in collaboration with DVVD and real estate developer REI France. Thanks to incredible technological advances over the last decade, wood has become championed as stronger, safer, and more economical than steel. That's because traditional wood beams are being replaced with prefabricated "mass timber," where sheets of wood with alternating grain are laminated atop one another to make a super-strong building material. This makes wood a far better choice for building a structure It not only requires much less energy to manufacture, it comes from a renewable source and can sequester carbon. And in many ways it's more fire-resistant than steel because burning wood creates a layer of insulation in the form of char (much like how trees protect themselves in a forest fire) which is less likely to structurally fail under the same conditions. The Baobab plan is part of Reinventer Paris, a comprehensive redevelopment program for the city that is turning over 23 sites in the city to innovative urban projects. Pershing, the area which the wooden skyscrapers are proposed for, would be part of a larger eco-minded community with affordable housing, urban farming, and transportation connections. The development claims that the environmental benefit of using wood is the climate equivalent of taking 2,207 cars off the road. The 35-story tower, "Baobab," places a heightened focus on community. With a strategic mix of market and social housing, a student hotel, urban agriculture, a bus station, e-car hub, and other amenities, the proposal hopes to "foster the city's vision for a connected, vibrant metropolis" and "define the next era of city building." A gorgeous, game-changing wood building would be well-suited in Paris, where the Eiffel Tower changed people's minds about the possibilities-and beauty-of iron as a building material over a century ago. In previous years Norway, Canada and Austria also announced about plans to build wooden skyscrapers. In 2012 Architect Michael Green, one of three principals at "McFarlane Green Biggar Architecture + Design", announced about plans for a 30-story wooden skyscraper in Vancouver. Two years later "Bergen Omegn Building Society" started works on the 14 story wooden structure "Treet" or "The tree", which would rise to 49 meters. This year architecture firm "Rudiger Lainer and Partner" has unveiled plans to build the 84 meters, 24 stories "HoHo" wooden tower in the Seestadt Aspern area of Vienna .

French president Francois Hollande inaugurated the Foundation Louis Vuitton contemporary art museum on October 20. The private contemporary art museum was financed by Bernard Arnault, who heads up the LVMH luxury goods empire and whose net worth is estimated at almost US$ 30 billion by Forbes. The foundation was designed by 85-year-old architect Frank Gehry who wanted to "design, in Paris, a magnificent vessel symbolizing the cultural calling of France". Gehry is best known for designing the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum building in Bilbao, Spain. Spain Museum of Modern Art Guggenheim Foundation aroused the admiration of the French billionaire who wished to have the building constructed in a similar aesthetic. Anchored by imposing iron and wood girders that evoke Belle Epoque steelwork, and relying on aerospace technology for its construction, Gehry's masterstroke is the building's 12 undulating sails covering an area of 13,500 square meters. The rectangular panels of glass made in specially created ovens in Italy reflect the light in different ways as they appear to twist this way and that. They float over the body of the building, "the iceberg," constructed of fiber-reinforced concrete known as Ductal. Construction and designing of the private museum has taken more than 12 years and Mr. Gehry had to design almost 60 different layouts. The ambitious project took 100 engineers assembled by Gehry and a total of 3,000 workers. The museum is as ambitious as anything Gehry has ever produced but also, surprisingly, as refined. Covering 11.700 square meters and holding 11 separate galleries on four levels as well as a sizable auditorium, space for concerts and so on. At the moment they are exposed not more than a dozen contemporary installations, specially created for the opening, and 60 architectural layouts of Gehry. The main collection will be placed in the halls only at the beginning of next year. The center formally opens on Octtober 27. Admission will be free for a few days and then rise to nearly US$ 18 for an adult. In 2062 the building will revert to public ownership, becoming property of the city of Paris.