on april 22, the book launch for a vertical forest was held at dobe we international hub @ bund. the book’s author, famous italian architect and dobe group’s distinguished consultant mr. stefano boeri was present in person to explain his wonderful ideas.
mr. stefano boeri is a world famous architect, curator, critic and educator. from 2011 to 2013, he was milan deputy mayor, in charge of culture and fashion. he also was the chief planner for expo milano 2015. he set the theme “feeding the planet, energy for life” for the expo. his famous works include the master plan for expo milano 2015, the bosco verticale in milan, the master plan and architectural design for the g8 summit in sardinia, as well as the mucem, etc. at the book launch, mr. boeri said: “the vertical forest is high in height and altitude, consisting rich species of plants, and thus needs intensive care to maintain. every year, maintenance workers for the plants of the vertical forest have to finish maintenance work several times, shuttling in the air, walking on the facades. the ‘flying gardeners’ were thus born.”
stefano boeri at his new book launching conference
a vertical forest is the world’s first bilingual book in chinese and english to introduce mr. boeri’s city concept, architectural theory and practice about biodiversity to china. it’s a book about green building the “vertical forest”, covering a series of content about the “vertical forest”, including the concept’s origin, the process of creation, the implementation of technologies, the current situation of application, as well as the vision and model for future forest cities. different from general architectural books, this book intends to describe a future world full of biodiversity to readers through the romantic italian language and beautiful illustrations. the book’s four chapters, “seven inspirations”, “stories from the vertical forest”, “illustrated dictionary of 100 vertical forest elements” and the last chapter “learn from the vertical forest no. 1”, vividly tell a complete story of the “vertical forest” and life, human, nature, the future to readers.
a “vertical forest” is a high-rise building with life, covered with plants. it’s not only a building inhabited by humans, but also a home for other creatures (birds and insects). the “vertical forest” also is an element in the construction of forest cities. the forest city is the prototype of our future life. it’s a direct extension from the concept of the “vertical forest”, superposed and evolved from the “vertical forest”. a forest city is a vertical city. it concentrates the plants and creatures of hundreds of hectares of forests in a 1-2 k㎡ urban space. it’s a common habitat of humans, animals and plants, integrating environmental sustainability (low-carbon strategy), biodiversity (reproduction of living things and coexistence of species) and social value.
future forest city
the first practice of the concept of the “vertical forest” –the bosco verticale is one of the landmarks in milan. on completion, it received high recognition by the international community, won the frankfurt international highrise award (iha) and the best tall building award issued by the council on tall buildings and urban habitat (ctbuh), etc. the bosco verticale in milan consists of two residential buildings about 100m high, planted with trees, shrubs and other plants. the growth of the rich plants is accompanied by the reproduction of all kinds of birds and insects, which improves the biodiversity in downtown milan as a result. apart from the “vertical forest” in construction in lausanne of switzerland, the concept also has been introduced into china. shanghai, chongqing, shijiazhuang, beijing, qingdao, xingyi in guizhou and other cities have begun to try to construct vertical forests.
photo of vertical forest in milan
at the book launch, ms. dai chun, editor in chief of “time architecture” magazine, mr. wang yan, chief designer of goa, mr. xu yibo, chief inspector of boeri studio in china and boeri studio’s founder mr. boeri discussed and shared their ideas about the development of the “vertical forest” in china, triggered new imaginations about the future biodiversity in china from building science, ecological development, climate different and other angles.
mr. boeri, mr. wang yan, mr. xu yibo and ms dai chun are discussing about “vertical forest”
this book launch got full support from dobe group, tongji university press and “time architecture” magazine. the book launch was held at dobe we international hub @ bund. the building was the site of former shanghai chinese merchants stock exchange. in 2015, mr. boeri designed it in person and gave the building a new life. mr. boeri said: “dobe’s undertanding of the green concept is ahead of others. they are aware that real sustainbility not only means comfort for human and building energy efficiency, but a real balance between natural ecology and human cities. therefore they always support the idea of introducing various plants and species ito high-density city centres.”
it’s reported that a vertical forest is to be on sale both in real bookstores and online in china at the end of april.