China’s Quest To Resolve Its Pollution Issues: The Liuzhou Forest City

Project: The Liuzhou Forest City
Architects: Stefano Boeri Architetti Milan/Shanghai with Shanghai Tongyan Architectural and Planning Design Co. Ltd.
Location: Liuzhou, China
Client: Liuzhou Municipality Urban Planning Bureau

Italian architect Stefano Boeri has started working on the concept of a forest city to be developed in China. Liuzhou, located in the mountainous area of Southern China, has been selected as the area for basing the entire town where Boeri is determined to cover offices, shops, restaurants, and residences—an entire town—in greenery to fight the pollution in the region. What this will also do for the ecosystem is provide shelter and a habitat for insect, bird, and animal populations to expand.

The city is expected to have a capacity of 30,000 people and will be covered with 40,000 trees and 1 million plants. With an aim to absorb almost 10,000 tonnes of CO2 and 57 tonnes of pollutants a year, over 100 species of plants will be planted on the premises. The city is also expected to produce 900 tonnes of oxygen per year with the plants acting as a natural sound barrier and cooling agent. The city is set to be completed by 2020. The transportation connection would be done via a fast rail line with electric cars. The facades and roofs of the structures are to be covered with foliage to increase the surface area for the plants.

The firm quotes, “For the first time in China and in the world, an innovative urban settlement will combine the challenge for energy self-sufficiency and for the use of renewable energy with the challenge to increase biodiversity and to effectively reduce air pollution in urban areas—which is really critical for present-day China—thanks to the multiplication of vegetable and biological urban surfaces.”