Following the success of the Vertical Forest in Milan, with the Liuzhou Forest City project, Stefano Boeri Architetti continues its researches for a new generation of architectures and urban settlements that faces climate change proposing new models for the future of our planet. The Forest City, commissioned by the Liuzhou Municipality Urban Planning, will be completed by 2020 and it will have a remarkable impact on the environment. For the first time in the world, thanks to an Italian project, an innovative urban settlement will combine the challenge for energy self-sufficiency and for the use of renewable energy with the challenge to increase biodiversity and to effectively reduce air pollution in urban areas thanks to the multiplication of vegetable and biological urban surfaces.
Liuzhou Forest City is located north of Liuzhou, Guangxi’s southern and mountainous province, in an area of about 175 acres along the Liujiang River and, in less than two years, it will be ready with offices, houses, hotels, hospitals, and schools entirely covered by plants and trees to welcome about 30,000 inhabitants. The great innovation of Stefano Boeri Architetti’s project is the presence of plants and trees over every building, of all sizes and functions for a total 40,000 trees and almost 1 million plants of over 100 species. This will allow the energy self-sufficient city to contribute to improving the air quality absorbing 10,000 tonnes of CO2 and 57 tons of fine dust and producing about 900 tons of oxygen each year. Moreover, all the plants will decrease the average air temperature, create noise barriers and improve the biodiversity of living species, generating the habitat for birds, insects, and small animals that inhabit the Liuzhou territory.
Ilona Catani Scarlett