BIMBY : ”Build In My Back Yard”, or the rise of French gentle densification movement

12 years ago, at the very start of the BIMBY adventure, a senior planner in the Paris region told me :

 David, you can’t be right against everyone. 

He had a point.

Back then, simply suggesting that creating new single‑family houses and higher density could work together sounded heretical. Yet that is exactly what our R&D programmes set out to prove.

For years now, the Villes Vivantes teams have waged a slow‑burn campaign of persuasion—showing experts, elected officials and specialised journalists that they alone cannot  be right against everyone  … against the millions who still dream of a house and a garden.

BIMBY’s bet was simple : the detached home and the elimination of urban sprawl are not enemies—they’re perfect allies. By helping homeowners split or transform their plots, gentle densification new services can rebuild the organic village fabric—one resident‑led project at a time, no developer required.

2022 became the tipping point.

Features in Télérama, France Inter, France 3, TF1 Quand la densification douce à Périgueux fait le JT de 20h sur TF1 and, one June evening, the 8 p.m. news on France 2 all asked the same question : What if the future of housing hides in our backyards ?

Because the first tangible results were finally visible—and the story resonates with everyone.

Listen to the residents who’ve already taken the leap : new homes for their children, an ageing parent now next door, rental income that secures a pension, lower energy bills after a top‑to‑bottom retrofit… all while adding life and resilience to the neighbourhood.

What began as urban R&D has turned into a movement.

Where we stand today :

• 12’000 + resident‑led projects explored, 2’000 + underway each year.
• A new profession emerging—halfway between architect, planner and real estate agent—to guide these micro‑transformations at scale.
• Municipalities rewriting zoning rules so village‑like evolution becomes the norm, not the exception.

Where we’re going next.

If just 1% of French homeowners initiated a BIMBY‑style project each year, France’s annual housing need would be covered—without demolition, megaprojects or concrete sprawl.

Gentle densification is no longer an idea in a lab. It’s a headline on the evening news—and a conversation at the kitchen table.

The solution was under our noses all along : trust residents, equip them, and watch villages bloom in the very suburbs we thought were frozen in time.

Ready to help scale the village revolution ? Let’s connect, share tools and make it happen.