China is planning to build a “Forest City” with 40,000 trees and over 100 different species of plants to bring healthier fresh air to southern China.
Italian architect Stefano Boeri has designed what he calls China’s first “Forest City,” according to his architecture firm, Stefano Boeri Architetti’s (SBA) website.
Boeri plans for the city to host 30,000 people adjacent to Liuzhou, a city of 3 million that experiences unhealthy levels of smog and air pollution.
The new city, Liuzhou Forest City, would be nestled in the mountain region of Guangxi along the Liujiang river. One building in the forest city could counteract the greenhouse gas emissions of five cars, Business Insider reports.
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The project is being commissioned by Liuzhou Municipality Urban Planning and comes at the same time that China has committed to the Paris Agreement, a global pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.
The green city will run completely on solar and geothermal power, making it completely self-sufficient in terms of energy, according to SBA.
Relying on the power of 1 million plants, the forest city will pump out 900 tons of fresh oxygen and filter 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 57 tons of pollutants per year to counteract the negative effects of global warming and air pollution.
According to ArchDaily, a digital architecture publication, the forest city will also act as a biodiversity hub for species of birds, animals, and insects as it will provide more natural habitat for wildlife around Liuzhou.
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While the project is ambitious, designing and building futuristic green cities is Boeri’s specialty.
In 2009, Boeri built an actual vertical forest which doubles as a residential building in his hometown of Milan. After five years of additional planning, the building was completed in 2014. The building includes 20,900 shrubs, plants, and trees weaved onto the outer layers of the building. It also requires gardening maintenance, which bypassers can see in Milan today.
As for China’s dreamy forest city, Boeri hopes to begin construction by 2020, according to SBA.
Until then, Boeri continues to design future forest towers and cities in China. He plans to add his vertical forest towers in Shijiazhuang and Nanjing, neighbor cities to Liuzhou, in the years to come, according to Business Insider.
