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Smart Forest City to be covered in 7.5 million plants

Lifestyle
4 years ago
2 minutes

How about this concept for a city of the future? Italian architect Stefano Boeri has unveiled a sensational-looking plan to create a forested smart city in Cancun, Mexico.

The design is set to be a pioneer for more eco-efficient developments and is intended to be built on a 557-hectare site near the Mexican city.

According to the architect, it will contain a mammoth 7.5 million plants, including numerous species of trees, shrubs and bushes.

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Smart Forest City

“Smart Forest City Cancun is a Botanical Garden, within a contemporary city, based on Mayan heritage and in its relationship with the natural and sacred world,” said architecture firm Stefano Boeri Architetti.

“This will be an urban ecosystem where nature and city are intertwined and act as one organism.”

The Smart Forest City is part of Boeri’s larger concept which will see a number of cities made of up plant-covered skyscrapers rolled out across China.

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Smart Forest City

The abundance of greenery is to help combat the CO2 emissions a city naturally creates and to depollute the surrounding environment.

"The Smart Forest City will absorb 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide with 5,800 tons of CO2 stocked per year,” added the firm. 

“The areas will be given back to nature through a perfect balance between the amount of green area and the building footprint.”

The project will not only aim to alleviate the world’s rising climate change, pollution, habitat destruction and animal extinction, but to be a pioneer in future eco-efficient developments.

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Smart Forest City

“Indeed, the effort of the smart Forest City of Cancun could make our world a better place, reducing significantly the negative impacts on the environment, possibly being a pioneer for a new kind of human settlement, a man-made city for nature and biodiversity.”

Smart Forest City Cancun will provide a home to 130,000 inhabitants, who will become "gardeners” of the plants. There will be a variety of affordable plant-covered housing aimed at different residents, including students, researchers, and professors.

Within this community, data will be collected from each resident to help improve the environment.

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Smart Forest City

“Big data management is used to improve the Governance of the city, hence, the life of its citizens. Sensors are distributed within the building fabric: they collect and share relevant information, which is then centrally analysed and turned into suggestions in support of everyday life.”

In conjunction, the project will aim to prevent the spread of diseases and help each resident make the most of the energy they are using.

"Energy flows are monitored, in order to suggest to the users certain energy measures.”

"For example, running their washing machines or dishwashers during peak generation conditions in order to get a cheaper energy rate, while supporting the energy management of the mechanical systems.”

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(All image credit: Stefano Boeri Architetti)