President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has enlisted some of Britain’s leading architects for one of his most daring projects. He wants to make Paris more like London.

Proposals now emerging reflect the French leader’s admiration for Anglo-Saxon dynamism. They are likely to horrify Parisians.

As part of the master plan architects are proposing high-rise suburbs modelled on Croydon, south London, and an orbital railway to link them. They will encourage the middle classes to move out of the centre of Paris and ordinary working people to move in.

Professor Richard Burdett, design chief for the London Olympics and one of the experts working on the “Greater Paris” project with the Richard Rogers architecture practice, said: “The notion of mixing different types of people and activity, so that people are cheek by jowl, makes a city over time much more tolerant and resilient to change.

“That’s why the melting pot model you see in London and New York works so well. It’s much more mixed than Paris.”

The French leader has been impressed by London, which gave his wife Carla a rapturous welcome when the couple visited earlier this year. London is also the home of one of his stepdaughters.

For all the reputation of Paris as the capital of romance, it is in need of a rethink, say experts, if it is to survive the century as anything more than a decaying monument to past glories.

Central Paris has become the most densely populated centre in Europe, with little room for more housing or offices. At the same time, much of the surrounding area is a weed-choked wasteland of immigrant ghettos that regularly erupt in riots and are barely linked to the national transport grid.

One of the British team’s proposals is to create a new body modelled on Transport for London, which could run a transport system for the entire greater Paris region.

Among the ideas being considered is a suburban orbital railway, similar to London’s new Overground network, to improve links between the city’s satellite towns.

The Rogers team is also investigating proposals for reducing the city’s carbon emissions including local renewable energy plants and a congestion charge inspired by the success of London’s system.

“Trying to wean the French off their cars will be a real challenge,” said Lennart Grut, the architect leading the project for the Rogers’ practice.

“You have to get the transport right first.” The team proposes to restrict high-density urban centres to brownfield sites and is focusing on a selection of towns, including the rough suburb of Saint-Denis, that could be built up into high-rise “hubs” like Croydon, linked by an orbital railway.

This would spare the region from continued urban sprawl and help to reduce pollution from car journeys.

“There are lessons to be learnt from London’s planning system in that we’d recommend you only allow high-density developments where you have excellent transport links,” said Burdett.

“A good example is the Shard skyscraper being built over London Bridge station. The tower will be half as tall again as Canary Wharf, but will have just 47 car parking spaces.” Besides “gen-trifying” the suburbs, Burdett recommends building cheaper housing in the centre of Paris to accommodate workers.

French architects – as well as engineers, sociologists and even philosophers – are all having their say. One idea is to create a vast metropolis stretching westwards along the Seine valley to the medieval city of Rouen and the port of Le Havre.

Another proposal is to move the centre of power – the Elysée Palace – into the suburbs and create a new Avenue des Champs-Elysées beside it.

Some experts believe that planning and political constraints will rule out some of t h e m o s t a m b i t i o u s rethinking and that Sarkozy might have to settle, like his predecessors, for one or two “great works” instead.

Others insist that he is determined to see it all through. “He considers this project indispensable,” said Jerome Dubus, a leader of the employers’ federation Medef that is helping to coordinate the venture. This raises the possibility that Sarkozy will one day be remembered for importing “le green belt” from Britain.

The French have always liked contemplating changing their capital. Napoleon wanted to build two lakes on either side of the Champs-Elysées. In the 1920s the architect Le Corbusier suggested knocking down much of Paris and putting up tower blocks on stilts.

Not everybody is impressed by Sarkozy’s plans. Bertrand Delanoë, the Socialist mayor of Paris and Sarkozy’s most likely opponent in presidential elections in 2012, resents government meddling in city affairs.

Jean Pierre Marot, a teacher, summed up the views of ordinary residents who regard the London influence with suspicion. “They’re all slaves to the free market over there,” he sniffed. “It’s just like America.”

However Sarkozy seems to envision change on a grand scale and told the architects to be “audacious” in creating the first “postKyoto” urban centre.

“The aim,” explained Henri Guaino, his speech writer and the aide in charge of the project, was nothing less than “to spawn a new city”.

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