SKY FORESTS

Architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri, the mastermind behind Milan’s famous forested high-rise Bosco Verticale, is tackling climate change via sustainable skyscrapers that invite nature into the heart of the city. Writer Y-JEAN MUN-DELSALLE finds out how his works represent the development of a new generation of urban architecture to combat the pressing issue of climate change in a revolutionary manner.

Stefano Boeri wants to bring living nature into the homes of city dwellers. “It’s different concept altogether,” the Italian architect says. “We have to imagine a kind of double simultaneous movement: one being the movement of citizens in the direction of the forest because it needs us to protect and maintain it, and the second, the movement of trees in the direction of the city.”

He elaborates: “If we want to tackle climate change, we now have many technologies like solar panels and geothermic tools to reduce the consumption of energy and use renewable energies. It’s important to invest in this kind of technology, but if we think of how we can absorb the CO2 that we have already produced, we have only trees, plants and forests. The basic reason for multiplying the number of trees inside our cities? They absorb CO2 and transform it into oxygen. I believe that’s an amazing, radical way to tackle climate change.”

As cities consume 75 percent of the earth’s natural resources and account for more than 70 percent of global CO2 emissions, which largely determine the global mean surface warming of the planet, growing more trees and plants can be part of the solution as they absorb nearly 40 percent of fossil fuel emissions.

Stefano is constructing high density towers for trees that are inhabited by humans and aimed at improving the quality of life by inviting nature into the heart of steel and concrete jungles. It’s not merely about a green wall or a roof garden, but also about growing plants and trees – oak, beech, larch, olive, cherry and apple – in planters on the overhanging balconies of high rises from top to bottom, resulting in a landmark that mutates with the seasons.