Stretching along nearly 3kms of the Seine in southeast Paris lies the largest urbanisation project in the French capital since the changes wrought by Baron Haussmann in the 19th century. Given the impetus by the gigantic modern Bibliothèque de France François Mitterrand, the new national library opened in 1999, the transformation of the vast area of former railway sidings and warehouses behind Gare d’Austerlitz into a district dubbed Paris Rive Gauche (www.parisrivegauche.com) is gradually taking shape.

Unlike the haphazard development of La Défense—and thanks in part to campaigns by local pressure groups during the planning process—this is mixed use office, residential, commercial and university space, that will eventually see 15,000 residents, 30,000 students and university staff, and 60,0000 employees working here.

Divided into three zones under three master planners, the architects-urbanists Christian de Portzamparc, Christian Devillers and Roland Schweitzer brought in renowned architects including Norman Foster, Rudi Ricciotti, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, Pierre-Louis Faloci, Francis Solers, Paul Chemetov, Chaix & Morel and Ricardo Bofill, conserving and converting some of the area’s impressive industrial heritage, such as the Grands Moulins de Paris and the Compressed Air Building, amid the new build. The area even has its 'Champs-Elysées’, the broad Avenue de France constructed on a 40-metre wide platform over the railway tracks.

Pharmaceuticals giant SanofiSynthélabo was the first company to install in 1998, since joined by other prestigious names including tobacco group Altadis, IT consultants Accenture, France Telecom, CDC Ixis Capital Markets, the publisher Flammarion and the Ministry of Sport. Key to the area is this mixture of business and university, with the Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot due to receive its first students in 2006, plus an architecture school and the Paris offshoot of the University of Chicago.

A cultural and leisure pole has been added by the MK2 multiplex cinema—from where the view from the first floor gives a fascinating perspective of the contrast between old and new Paris—the cluster of music barges on the Seine, as well as the survival of Les Frigos (artists’ and musicians’ studios in an old refrigerated warehouse) due to be joined this summer by a floating swimming pool.

Keeping up with the district’s image of research and innovation, May 2006 sees the opening of the Paris Biopark (www. parisdeveloppement.com), intended to make up the French lag in biotechnology. Housed in a complex of five blocks of laboratories and office space designed by architects Valode and Pistre around a central square (gardens are a big part of the design, intended to emphasise the relationship with nature), this initiative promises an alliance between private and public sectors that is rare in France. Young biotechnology companies will be joined by outlets of prestigious research institutes, such as the Institut Pasteur, Institut Curie and INSERM. They will also benefit from its proximity to the new university science faculties and the enormous Pitié-Salpêtrière teaching hospital nearby.