News: Danish firm BIG has been selected to design an 80-hectare shopping and leisure complex with a park on its roof to serve a business district between two Paris airports.

EuropaCity will be located in the Triangle de Gonesse – an area southwest of Charles de Gaulle International Airport and north of the smaller Le Bourget Airport – and themed around the diverse cultures of the European continent.

"We propose to integrate the new facility in the surrounding business district as an urban form that combines dense city with open landscape," said BIG, referring to the grassy parkland that will cover the structure.

A mix of retail and entertainment offerings will be arranged along a circular, looping avenue, with bicycle lanes and electric public transport – seen in the image below as small white pods – enabling visitors to get around.

BIG also proposes to make EuropaCity a showcase for sustainable technology by using waste heat from cooling plants to heat swimming pools, recycling waste water to irrigate the parks and installing solar, wind and geothermal energy.

The masterplan was chosen from a shortlist of four, including Valode & Pistre, Manuelle Gautrand and Snøhetta, by the property subsidiary of French retail chain Auchan.

BIG was one of 12 international firms recently shortlisted to design a new headquarters and visitor centre for the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Sweden, while earlier in the year the studio was appointed to lead the redesign of the Smithsonian Institution campus in Washington DC – see all architecture by BIG.

Other projects recently announced in France include a masterplan for the south of Bordeaux by Dutch firm OMA and an apartment tower in Montpellier with rippling floor plates – see all architecture in France.