“THE FOREST CITY: HOW TO MAKE THE CITIES OF THE FUTURE EFFICIENT, SUSTAINABLE AND IN HARMONY WITH NATURE“

The current environmental crisis is a challenge that concerns us much more closely than we think. When we talk about environmental sustainability, our thinking travels very far away from us: erosion of forests, melting glaciers, desertification, pollution of the seas … In fact, the cities in which we live are mainly responsible for all this because they produce 70% of CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere. To be more precise, responsibility is in the way they work and have been conceived. As currently structured, our cities are completely unable to respond to the current environmental crisis and in the future are destined to become increasingly unsustainable and uninhabitable. To avoid this, a profound rethinking of our cities and their architecture is necessary. Stefano Boeri, architect and Professor of Urban Planning at the Polytechnic of Milan, has tried to solve this problem by Urban Forestry and Vertical Foresting.

According to Stefano Boeri, cities must be able to absorb the carbon dioxide they produce and can do so through urban forestation, where trees and vegetation become a fundamental element of city architecture, not just an urban decoration.

Stefano Boeri. Architect and Full Professor of Urban Planning at Politecnico in Milan, Boeri has been a guest professor at various universities, including Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD), the Strelka Institute in Moscow and the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands, the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He has been designer and member of the Scientific Board at Skolkovo Innovation Center, high tech hub close to Moscow. Stefano Boeri is director of the Future City Lab (FCL) of Tongji University in Shanghai, a post-doctoral research program which explores the future perspectives of metropolis. He was Councillor for Culture in Milan from 2011 to 2013. Since 2015 he has been appointed member of the Scientific Board of the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy, a palace and Italian classical art museum, along with Davide Gasparotto, Senior Curator of Paintings Department at The J. Paul Getty Museum, and Carl Brandon Strehlke, Curator Emeritus of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Since February, 2018 Stefano Boeri is Chairman of Fondazione La Triennale di Milano, one of the main cultural institutions in Italy, staging exhibitions, conferences and events on art, design and architecture. He was director of the international magazines Domus (2004-2007) and Abitare (2007-2011) and published articles in magazines such as Casabella, Icon, 2g, Archis and Blueprint. He published many books, among which Il territorio che cambia (with A. Lanzani and E. Marini, Abitare Segesta, 1996), Mutations (ACTAR Barcellona,2000), USE, Uncertain states of Europe (Skira, 2009), L’anticittà (Laterza, 2011), Biomilano. Glossario di idee per una metropoli basata su biodiversità (Corraini, 2011), Fare di più con meno (il Saggiatore, 2012), A Vertical Forest. Instructions booklet for the prototype of a forest city (Corraini, 2015) e La città scritta (Quodlibet Edizioni, 2016).

• Let me give you a figure: cities produce 70% of CO2 emissions. The main cause of the serious problems related to climate change, from ice melting to biodiversity loss and rising sea levels.

• So what is a Forest City? It is not just the reproduction of many ‘Vertical Forests.’ It is a urgent call for extending green areas into the whole urban area.

• The problem is not ‘efficiency’ (today’s cities have low levels of efficiency). The problem is how to improve the quality of life through the integration of different solutions. Environmental protection and energy efficiency are not conflicting aspects.

• Now let me give you an example: the Vertical Forest of Milan. Three years after its realization, it has matched or even exceeded our expectations in terms of quality of life of the city. The results in terms of absorption of CO2 and fine particles are extraordinary.

• A urban forestry strategy is now a urgency! We extremely need forests and trees in our cities. San Francisco, Amsterdam, Paris and other capitals teach us about urban forestation. They tell us it is a challenge that concerns everyone and needs to be tackled on a global scale.

• … protect permeable and green surfaces in the city, create new parks and gardens, transform the roofs of the city into meadows and urban gardens, transform courtyards and urban gaps into green oases. These are the areas we should concentrate our efforts on in every city, all over the world, from Europe to China

• We are working in cooperation with the FAO, and the first Urban Forestry World Forum is to be held from 28th November to 1st December 2018 in Mantova.

Question 1 | The challenge for 21st century architecture

Question 2 | “Forest City”, “Smart Cities” and “Vertical Forests”

Your Liuzhou and Shijiazhuang Forest City projects in China are really exciting. Would you explain to us what is a Forest City about? What kind of differences are there with “Smart Cities” and “Vertical Forests?

In 2015 at COP21 in Paris, I presented a Forest City project for Shijiazhuang, the Chinese city with the highest rate of air pollution, covered by a hood of smog and soot, dissipated only for a few days a year. So what is a Forest City? It is not just the reproduction of many ‘Vertical Forests.’ It is a urgent call for extending green areas into the whole urban area.

30,000 inhabitants, different residential areas with commercial spaces, as well as schools, hospitals and services. These are some characteristics of Liuzhou Forest City. But let me say…that…above all, Liuzhou will be an energy self-sufficient urban establishment, with geothermal energy for interior air-conditioning and solar panels all over the roofs. In terms of mobility, infrastructural systems and energy sustainability the Forest City is like a ‘smart city.’ But it has something more peculiar… vegetation is its main architectural feature. In smart cities vegetation is just a simple ornament.

Liuzhou Forest City will have in total 40,000 trees and almost 1 million plants of over 100 species, a boost for biodiversity and our lungs. The plants, not only in the parks and gardens or along the streets, but also over building facades, will allow the whole complex to improve air quality (absorbing both CO2 and fine dust of 57 tons per year), decrease the average air temperature, create noise barriers and improve biodiversity, with a suitable habitat for.

Liuzhou and Shijiazhuang Forest City projects in China?

Source: Stefano Boeri Architetti website

Question 3 | State of the art

Have the two projects already been implemented and tested? Is the interest in this urban model increasing?

If before I gave you a figure… Now let me give you an example: the Vertical Forest of Milan. Three years after its realization, it has matched or even exceeded our expectations in terms of quality of life of the city. The results in terms of absorption of CO2 and fine particles are extraordinary. What about efficiency? The results are extraordinary as well: the energy required by the air conditioning system in summer has been drastically reduced thanks to the shading of plants and trees. Moreover, trees in an urban context can significantly reduce humidity and decrease the temperature with beneficial effects in terms of energy saving and quality of life. But one of the most beautiful results is the increase of biodiversity: the Vertical Forest contains almost one hundred species of plants and over fifteen species of birds have nested between the trees of the two towers. It’s a real ecosystem which has allowed numerous species of birds to come back to the city of Milan.

You also asked me about the interest in these projects. I should say yes, it has increased. All the factors I have just mentioned, as well as the increased wellness of the inhabitants have contributed to it. Now we can see them spreading all over the world.

Question 4 | Protecting nature and ensure high levels of efficiency in the urban context

Well…Let me point out that the problem is not “efficiency” (today’s cities have low levels of efficiency). The problem is how to improve the quality of life through the integration of different solutions. Environmental protection and energy efficiency are not conflicting aspects. They must be considered holistically, as Pope Francis speaks of holistic ecology in his encyclical “Laudato si,” a breaking text which disapproves consumerism and irresponsible development, laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls for global action.

Vertical Forests in Milan, Paris and Nanjing

Source: Stefano Boeri Architetti website

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Question 5 | The challenges of Forest City

We must make a distinction between developing countries and the western ones. In China and countries where urbanization processes are still very powerful, newly built cities allow a drastic re-thinking of the relationship between nature and the urban context. In Europe and in the United States, the birth of a new city is a long and complex process, rarely applicable in established urban realities. In these cases, we must work on unoccupied urban places and infrastructural systems. This approach has been applied to Macao. There a system of suspended transport has been created: It’s a large green channel which crosses the city. Then also see the Fiume Verde project in Milan, which is transforming the former railway freight into kilometers of continuous parks; or the Tirana 2030 Town Planning Plan, which includes a circular forest used as a boundary to expansion of the city.

Question 6 | Forest City in the world

Question 7 | Geo-physical conditions to build a Forest City?

And let’s go on with “where…” Are there any particular geo-physical characteristics necessary to build a Forest City?

Surely, the environment exercises a decisive influence. We have asked ourselves: how a Forest City would be in different locations, with different climatic conditions and different types of vegetation. And we have imagined them. The result? Urban settlements with specific Urban Forestry. The geographical variation is not an obstacle! It gives us the opportunity of creating new solutions to the challenges brought by every context.