Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Nanjing Vertical Forest in China Milanese architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri is the father of the concept of Vertical Forests, or high-rises covered with the leaves of thousands of plants and trees of different species, the first of which saw the light of day a decade ago. The Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) in Milan, comprising two plant-clad residential towers, formed the equivalent of three hectares of woodland and undergrowth concentrated in just 3,000 sqm of space, and came to symbolize urban reforestation championing the close coexistence of architecture and nature. Boeri reminisces about his mother Cini Boeri, an important figure in Italian design and architecture, and his award-winning Vertical Forests.
Your mother, Cini Boeri, was one of the great pioneering women in Italian design and architecture. Growing up, did you visit many different buildings with her? My relationship with my mother was open and large, over many different fields, that we were not specifically connected through architecture. I traveled a lot with her, and I remember in 1979, we went to China together because she had work in Japan, and then from Tokyo, we flew to Shanghai and then to Beijing.
It was the first time for me in China and I have a memory of those years, which was basically completely another world. I’m very thankful to her, for what she led me to experience. Is climate change the most pressing issue facing the architectu.
