BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

As overpopulation and climate change take their toll on our cities, engineers and urban planners are adapting their designs to cope with an uncertain future

- ABIGAIL BEALL

LIUZHOU, CHINA

GARDEN STATE

Can forest cities help to mop up our pollution?

Traditionally, the more people in a city, the fewer trees there are. To create space for houses, offices and other buildings, nature takes second place. But, if architect Stefano Boeri has anything to do with it, this will soon be changing.

Boeri has designed a forest city, to be created in the north of Liuzhou – a metropolis in the Guangxi region in southern China. This mountainous area was chosen to be “a city where living nature is totally intertwined with architecture”, according to Boeri. Instead of completely getting rid of the trees to build houses, the city’s design accommodates the surrounding greenery. Homes and commercial buildings will be covered with trees, with gardens on the balconies of every floor, and rooftops that are home to miniature forests. “I have been working on the idea of urban forestation for years,” says Boeri. “In those areas of the planet where it is still necessary to build new cities, we are planning real forest cities for a maximum of 150,000 inhabitants.”

The Liuzhou Forest City will be connected to central Liuzhou via a railway line and a road. It will be home to 30,000 people, and include commercial and recreational spaces, two schools and a hospital. On top of this, the vegetation will absorb carbon dioxide and pollutants, as well as releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.