World’s First Vertical Forest City Breaks Ground in China

Construction has begun on the Liuzhou Forest City in the mountainous region of Guangxi, China. Designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti, the new ground-up city will accommodate up to 30,000 people in a master plan of environmentally efficient structures covered top-to-bottom in plants and trees.

Liuzhou Forest City will contain all of the essential typologies of the modern city – offices, houses, hotels, hospitals and schools – housed within a 175 hectare site near the Liujiang River. Employing the firm’s signature vertical forest system, The facades of each building will be covered in plant life, with a total 40,000 trees and nearly 1 million plants from over 100 species specified.

This implementation of greenery will benefit both residents and the environment, acting as passive cooling systems for interior spaces, noise barriers to shield the city from the nearby highway and a micro-habitat supporting the region’s lush biodiversity of organisms including plants, birds, insects and small animals. The system will also improve the air quality of the area, as it is estimated to absorb 10,000 tons of CO2 and 57 tons of pollutants per year, in turn producing approximately 900 tons of oxygen.

In addition to the benefits of the planted facades, each building has been designed for energy self-sufficiency, with geothermal systems providing interior air conditions and rooftop solar panels offering a renewable energy source. Transportation to downtown Liuzhou will also utilize efficiency means, including a high-speed rail line and electric vehicles.

The forest city concept builds upon the firm’s vertical forest research, which has resulted in the world’s first completed vertical forest tower in Milan, as well as plans for several other iterations of the system throughout the world including the Chinese cities of Nanjing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

With construction on Liuzhou Forest City now underway, the project is expected to be realized in just 3 years, with an anticipated opening in 2020.

News via Stefano Boeri Architetti.

Architects: Stefano Boeri Architetti
Location: Liuzhou, Guangxi, China
Partners: Stefano Boeri, Yibo Xu
Project Leader: Pietro Chiodi
Team Architects: Julia Gocalek, Yinxin Bao, Shilong Tan with Giulia Chiatante
Cooperative Design Institute In China: Shanghai Tongyan Architectural and Planning Design Co. Ltd.
Client: Liuzhou Municipality Urban Planning Bureau
Area: 1385000.0 m2
Photographs: Stefano Boeri Architetti

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