7.5 million plants and desalination of seawater are at the heart of the new eco-friendly project
It all started with the ‘Vertical Forest‘ in Milan, it continued with the ‘Liuzhou Forest City‘ in China. Now, Stefano Boeri Architect presented its latest impressive project: ‘Smart Forest City – Cancun’. Designed for Grupo Karim’s the new Forest City will be located by the Mexican city of Cancun. It will be a technological and eco-friendly urban hub.
The new city will host 130.000 inhabitants on 557 hectares of land area. Of these, 400 hectares will be of green space with 7,500,000 plants of 400 different species chosen by the botanist Laura Gatti. The calculated balance between green areas and building footprint means that it will absorb 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide with 5,800 tons of CO2 stocked per year.
This will be possible thanks to public parks, private gardens, green roofs and facades. Thanks to the contribution of the German office Transsolar, the city is conceived to be completely food and energy self-sufficient. Surrounded by a ring of solar panels and of agricultural fields, the City will be deeply characterized by a fully circular economy.
Seawater will be gathered at the entrance of the City in a huge basin, next to a desalination tower. Following desalination, it will be distributed by a system of navigable canals in the whole settlement up to the agricultural fields belt that surrounds the urban area. While, MIC (Mobility in Chain) conceived for the city an articulated transportation system. This will allow people to leave private vehicles at the edges of the city and rely uniquely on internal electric and semi-automatic mobility.
‘Smart Forest City – Cancun’ aspires to be the first Forest City of the new millennium; an open and international city whose development is focused on technological innovation and environmental quality.
Boeri imagines it to host an advanced research center for sustainability issues and the future of the planet.
Cover ph: courtesy of Stefano Boeri Architetti for Arquine