Paris mayor calls on world's top architects to 'reinvent Paris'

The project will cover around 37 acres of space and see up to 600 lodgings built.

"The selected sites represent varied opportunities for both land and housing that can be quickly developed," said Jean-Louis Missaka, deputy mayor in charge of urbanism.

These include an electricity sub-station at Parmentier, which the mayor wants to see transformed into a "popular, quality cinema" and the old Massna station in the 13th arrondissement. Also up for grabs is vacant land in the 19th arrondissement, along with a 16th-century mansion house in the chic 5th and the former Paris government prefect headquarters by the Seine in the 4th arrondissement.

Perhaps the most challenging prospect for architects is to suggest designs for a future building bridging the peripherique or Paris ring road - at the Porte des Ternes.

Ideas are to be sent early next year, with a short list drawn up by July and the winning tenders announced next December.

Those chosen will then have the option of buying or renting the sites they will transform.

The ambitious plan comes as Paris's town hall faces stiff resistance to a project to build the Triangle Tower, a 50-storey, 590ft high pyramid-like structure, due to overlook Paris from its southwestern extremity at the Porte de Versailles, already home to a vast exhibition centre.

The council of Paris is due to vote on the project this month, with the Socialists' green partners due to vote against, along with part of the opposition centre and Right.

Mr Missika said a vote against would send "a very bad signal to the outside world, where France already has a reputation of being a country that is struggling to enter modernity."

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Paris mayor calls on world's top architects to 'reinvent Paris'