Liuzhou Forest City in China – Can’t See The City For The Trees?

Forest City absorbs 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 57 tons of pollutants yearly

30 June 2017 From Paul Münzner Filed Under: Featured, New Urban

Liuzhou Forest City is able to absorb almost 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide yearly (Stefano Boeri Architetti)

If you are familiar with the latest architecture trends, it is very likely that you think about buildings planted with trees and bushes on each floor in case you hear the name Stefano Boeri. In 2015, his architecture firm announced to build the first Cedar Trees Tower in Switzerland. Some months later, the Italian designer presented a planned building project – a high-rise park called Vertical Forest – for the Chinese city of Nanjing. But only one with trees planted multi-storey building doesn’t seem to be enough. China recently started construction work on Liuzhou Forest City in the southern Chinese Province Guangxi west of Hongkong. It stretches over 175 hectares along the Liujiang River. Very likely the first ever planned city consisting of plenty of buildings with extensive facade greenery.

40,000 Trees – Nearly 1 Million Plants – More Than 100 Species

Liuzhou Forest City from a birds eye designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti — Liuzhou Forest City stretches over 175 hectares along the Liujiang River (Stefano Boeri Architetti)

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Liuzhou Forest City with station from a bird's eye — (Stefano Boeri Architetti)

Commissioned by Liuzhou Municipality Urban Planning, houses, hotels, offices, hospitals, and educational institutions will be completely covered by shrubs and trees. It will not only offer homes to around 30,000 people. Liuzhou Forest City is able to improve the air quality by absorbing almost 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 57 tons of pollutants yearly. Roughly 900 tons of produced oxygen contribute providing healthy air for the inhabitants of this innovative city. But all the greenery fulfills a further function: The countless leaves and branches on every floor work as natural noise barriers. Even birds and insects will like the new habitat.

Liuzhou Forest City from a bird's eye designed by Italian Designer Stefano Boeri — Liuzhou Forest City from a bird’s eye (Stefano Boeri Architetti)

According to the Master Plan, Stefano Boeri Architetti aims to connect Forest City with electric cars driving on a fast rail line. But the focus is not only on greenery and emission-free mobility. The objective of energy self-sufficiency can probably be achieved through renewables like geothermal energy or solar panels on the roofs.

Liuzhou Forest City from the side view — Liuzhou Forest City from the side (Stefano Boeri Architetti)

For residents, it is interesting to know how the maintenance and plant care is organized. Furthermore, how is about the safety? Actually, there should be a reliable solution to protect people from falling branches.

Liuzhou Forest City with tree planted buildings by darkness (Stefano Boeri Architetti)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Paul Münzner and I'm founder and editor of ECOURBANHUB. I studied engineering and management at the University of Freiberg in Germany. Since my studies, I'm taken with the question how to shape and manage a more sustainable urban future. LinkedIn

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Comments

Robert Esselburn says
06 July 2017 at 4:24 PM
wonderful concept. we discussed something like this at a much smaller scale this morning. hope we all get it off the boards and into the ground!
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Sander Lazar says
11 July 2017 at 3:56 AM
This makes me wonder what the physical and safety limits are of forested buildings. A lot of tree maintenance must be required to ensure large branches don’t fall off from the 12th floor. And how much tree weight and root growth can these buildings sustain?
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