Vincent Callebaut

Despite the challenges and delays caused by COVID-19, 2021 looks set to be an outstanding year for architecture. With this in mind, we've chosen five exciting projects we're looking forward to this year.

If you've seen Vincent Callebaut's futuristic designs and wondered what it would be like to visit one, you now can. He's created a "refugee camp for insects" to raise awareness of pollinating insect decline that's viewable in VR or a web browser.

Vincent Callebaut has unveiled a proposal for a new mixed-use residential development made primarily from timber. Named Archiborescence, it would include lots of greenery and boast sustainability features like solar and wind power.

Over a decade after first being commissioned, Vincent Callebaut's twisting Tao Zhu Yin Yuan is finally nearing completion – and it's looking like the wait has been worth it. It has an ambitious DNA-inspired form and a focus on energy efficiency.

Turning Paris from a City of Light to a City of Green has long been an ambition of Vincent Callebaut. His firm's latest project in this vein envisions a footbridge packed with fruit and vegetables that could produce almost 100 tons of food each year.

From supertall skyscrapers to private homes, we've reported on a lot of architecture projects that incorporate trees and plants on their facade lately. With this in mind, let's take a look at some of our favorite greenery-covered buildings.

Assuming Vincent Callebaut's Rainbow Tree is actually realized, the greenery-covered timber tower will rise to an impressive height of 115 m. It will also feature significant sustainable design, including solar panels and wind turbines.

Following the devastating fire that damaged the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, Vincent Callebaut Architectures has unveiled its vision for the iconic building's restoration. The firm imagines it being topped by a new glass roof and a spire, and for it to receive a significant sustainable upgrade.

Vincent Callebaut Architectures recently won a competition to renovate a historic thermal baths in Aix-les-Bains, France. The proposal calls for significant sustainable design and technology, including lots of greenery, solar panels, rainwater collection, and more.

Vincent Callebaut Architectures brings the outdoors into the workplace with its proposal for a new headquarters for French company Soprema. Named Semaphore, it will boast sustainable technology and have a massive amount of greenery, with around 10,000 plants, shrubs and trees.

Vincent Callebaut has won the commission to handle the green makeover of a large old post office in Luxembourg City. Assuming it goes ahead, the project will involve renovating the building, as well as adding an eye-catching glazed dome and significant sustainable technology.

Sometimes outlandish, often fantastical, but always compelling, Vincent Callebaut's projects range from realizable ideas like greenery-covered towers to conceptual works in which architecture, technology, and nature are blended to make cities a more pleasant – and sustainable – place to live.