Smart forest cities

Smart Forest City, Cancun
An architecture firm has designed a smart city that
resembles a forest more than an urban metropolis

What are smart forest cities ?
• A Forest city is a city of a new generation,
capable of becoming a model of sustainable
growth in a large country seeing
• Forest City is composed by Vertical Forests
• is the prototype of a new generation of small,
compact and green cities, composed by dozens
of tall and middle size buildings the so called
“Vertical Forests” all surrounded by the
leaves of trees.

• An urban ecosystem
• Is an urban ecosystems is a mix-use social
environment, with residential housings,
offices, retails, malls, public spaces and
gardens.
• The central Park (carpel) is the place for the
main Public Facilities, the Hospital, the
School, the Cultural Activities.

• An anti-sprawl device.
• Every Forest City will concentrate in a vertical
dimension and within a perimeter of 1,5 for 1,5
square kilometres (225 hectares)

• A sustainable city, with low energy
consumption.
• The vegetative filter on the buildings balconies
creates a reduction in the difference between
the outside and inside temperature of about 3
degrees.
• In summertime it reduces the heating of the
facades by up to 30 degrees.

A sustainable city, with low energy
consumption

• An absorber of CO2 and the dust of urban
pollution.
• Forest Cities (FCS) cleans the air.
• The vegetation within (FC) is designed in such a
way as to form a continuous green filter between
inside and outside of inhabited areas, able to
absorb the fine particles produced by urban
traffic, to produce oxygen, to absorb CO2, and
to shield the balconies and interiors from very
high pollution cities.

Forest Cities (FCS) cleans the air

• Approximatively, every SQM of a Vertical
Forest facade is absorbing 0,4 kg of CO2 a
year Only considering the plants housed in
the vertical facades of the green buildings,
FCS will absorb approximately 1,750 kg of
CO2 a year.
• FCS will contribute to improve the
environmental quality of the air in the whole
city.

Forest City will absorb
approximately1,750 kg of CO2 a year

• A multiplier the biodiversity of the living
species.
• FCS will be the home of hundreds of different
spices of plant life, including trees, shrubs and
perennials.
• FCS will host many spices of birds and
domestic animals.

A multiplier the biodiversity of the living
species

• An ever-changing urban landmark.
• Thanks to the variety of plant spices housed
along the balconies and in the presence of
deciduous trees, FCS will change its skin and
the colour composition of its leaving
facades, according to changing seasons and
weather conditions.

An ever-changing urban landmark.

• The basic element of a new model of
urbanisation.
• FCS is a model of urbanisation and the basic
element for a large number of settlement
combinations.

The basic element of a new model of
urbanisation

Stefano Boeri : The man Behind the Concept
of Smart Forest Cities
• Stefano Boeri : The man Behind the
Concept of Smart Forest Cities
• Stefano Boeri is an Italian architect and urban
planner, born in Milan in 1956, founding
partner of Stefano Boeri Architetti (SBA).

Stefano Boeri is an Italian architect
and urban planner

• Stefano Boeri Architetti has recently
completed the Vertical Forest, two
sustainable residential towers based on urban
biodiversity in Milan

Stefano Boeri Architetti has recently
completed the Vertical Forest, two sustainable
residential towers

• Stefano Boeri has developed various plans for
the reconversion of European waterfronts
(Genoa, Naples, Trieste, Cagliari, Salonika,
Mytilene)

Stefano Boeri has developed various plans for
the reconversion of European waterfronts

• Stefano Boeri Architetti is also very active
abroad, outside of Europe, specially in China
with the headquarter in Shanghai the studio is
developing projects as “Forest City” recently
presented at the Paris Climate Conference
(COP21), a model of sustainable city able to
consume tons of CO2 and generate oxygen.

Stefano Boeri Architetti
• Recently SBA was selected with three other
teams by the Egyptian Government to
redesign the triangle of Maspero in the heart
of downtown Cairo, developing a series of new
towers and public facilities along the Nile
waterfront.

Selected works
• Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) is a model
for sustainable residential buildings.
• A project for metropolitan reforestation that
regenerates the environment and the urban
biodiversity without expanding the city upon
the territory.
• Vertical Forest is a model of vertical
densification of nature within the city.

Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) is a model for
sustainable residential buildings

Selected works
• The first unit of Vertical Forest is formed by
two residential towers, 119 and 87 meters
high, realized in the centre of Milan Isola
neighbourhood, that will host 900 trees and
over 2000 plants from a wide range of floral
species distributed in relation to the façade
position towards the sun.

• Italian architect Stefano Boeri has unveiled
plans to create a forested smart city near
Cancun, Mexico, that is designed to be a
"pioneer" of more eco-efficient
developments.

• Smart Forest City Cancun is intended to be
built on a 557 hectare site near the Mexican
city.
• According to the architect it will contain 7.5
million plants, including numerous species of
trees, shrubs and bushes chosen by botanist
and landscape architect Laura Gatti.

• Thanks to the new public parks and private
gardens, thanks to the green roofs and to
the green facades, the areas actually occupied
will be given back by nature through a perfect
balance between the amount of green areas and
building footprint.
• The Smart Forest City will absorb 116.000
tons of carbon dioxide with 5.800 tons of
CO2 stocked per year.

• Smart Forest City – Cancun is the first Forest
City of the new millennium, an open and
international city whose development is
focused on technological innovation and
environmental quality.

• A center for advanced research that could hosts all
worldwide university departments, international
organizations and companies that deal with very
important sustainability issues and the future of
the planet.
• New research and development departments
are dedicated to welcome researchers and
young students from Mexico and from the best
academies and universities from all over the
world.

• Thanks to the contribution of the German
office Transsolar, Smart Forest City – Cancun is
conceived to be completely food and energy
self-sufficient.
• Surrounded by a ring of solar panels and of
agricultural fields irrigated by a water channel
connected with a underwater maritime pipe, the
City will be deeply characterized by full circular
economy.

• In particular, water is a key element in the
project: it is gathered at the entrance of the City
in a huge basin, where there is also a desalination
tower, and it is distributed by a system of
navigable canals in the whole settlement up to the
agricultural fields belt that surrounds the urban
area.
• A series of water gardens are designed to fight
floods as a model for resilient landscapes.

• This new City is conceived to have a vanguard
mobility system: MIC (Mobility in Chain)
has proposed an articulated transportation
system that allows residents and visitors to
leave their vehicles at the edges of the city and
rely uniquely on internal electric and semi-
automatic mobility.

• "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 Stefano
Boeri Architetti.
• "An urban ecosystem where nature and city
are intertwined and act as one organism."

Smart Forest City Cancun is a Botanical
Garden, within a contemporary city

• The project forms of part of Boeri's Forest City
concept which will see cities made up of
plant-covered skyscrapers rolled out across
urban areas and the abundance of greenery
is intended to depollute the surrounding
environment.

Forest City concept which will see cities made up of
plant-covered skyscrapers is intended to de-pollute
the surrounding environment.

• "Thanks to the new public parks and private
gardens, thanks to the green roofs and to the
green facades, the areas actually occupied
will be given back by nature through a perfect
balance between the amount of green areas
and building footprint”.

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

• With concerns about climate change, pollution,
habitat destruction and animal extinction
rising, the firm believes the city could be a
"pioneer" for more eco-efficient developments.
• "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,”

• Data in the smart city will be managed with
"full respect of the privacy of the citizens"
a particularly important element after the
Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal
allegedly used data to influence voters in
political campaigns.
• In Boeri's scheme, however, data will be
used to improve various aspects of city life.

• "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," it added.
• "For example, by mapping on an app the
expected outdoor comfort experience within
certain areas of the city."

• Preventing the spread of diseases and making
the most of energy use are among other
possible benefits, according to the firm.
• "Energy flows are monitored, in order to suggest
to the users certain energy measures," it said.
• "For example, running their washing machines
or dish washers during peak generation
conditions, in order to get a cheaper energy
rate, while supporting the energy management
of the mechanical systems."

• Boeri has teamed up with German
engineering company Transsolar to design
Smart Forest City Cancun to be self-
sufficient in producing its own food and
energy.
• Among the elements included to promote the
circular economy are solar panels, and
farmland that will be irrigated by an embedded
water system.

• Water will be collected in a basin at the
entrance of the city, which will also include a
desalination tower, and then distributed
throughout canals.
• Because of Cancun's close proximity to the
Carribean Sea, the parcel is encircled by "water
gardens" that bolster it against flooding.
Renderings of the development show that these
waterways can also be used for boating around
the development.

• Other features of the future neighbourhood
include an internal electric and semi-automatic
mobility system developed by Milan urban
and transportation planning firm MIC
(Mobility in Chain).
• The systems means that all residents will
leave vehicles on the outskirts.

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

• "We have designed different types of housing
that could include all the types of inhabitants,"
said the firm.
• "This will include affordable buildings for
young students, researchers, professors."

• The complex is also designed to become a
centre for advanced research with six
facilities that address some of the leading
issues in today's society: bio-healthcare;
astrophysics and planetary science; coral reef
restoration; precision farming and regenerative
technology; smart city; and mobility and
robotics.

• "The idea behind this project is to create a
district dedicated to research and
innovation (the fields will be: molecular
biology, robotics, IT, etc) where academic
institutions and research centres meet, along
with big multinational corporations and the
new generations of students and researchers,
Mexican and from all over the world," said the
firm.

• Boeri presented the concept master plan
and project to the Region and the
Municipality in March, and is awaiting
approval.
• The project forms part of a wave of new smart
cities proposed for areas across North
America.

• The urban project of Smart Forest City – Cancun is
designed according to Non-Determistic Urbanism.
• Given the big invariants of urban structure – related to
energy infrastructure, mobility and green, to the
presence of development and research poles and to the
right of each inhabitant to have at its disposal all
services at a correct pedestrian and cycling distance
the City grants a great flexibility in the distribution
of all different architectural typologies that can be
articulated in the five big sectors that the Master
plan defines.

References
• Architecture Firm Designs Smart Forest City Cancun That's Fully Self-
Sufficient
• https://interestingengineering.com/architecture-firm-designs-smart-forest-city-
cancun-thats-fully-self-sufficient
• SMART FOREST CITY CANCUN
• https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/project/smart-forest-city-cancun/
• Smart Forest City Maxico
• https://youtu.be/mHU_9-Pa7SE
• Stefano boeri architetti
• https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/
• Stefano Boeri unveils Smart Forest City covered in 7.5 million plants for
Mexico
• https://www.dezeen.com/2019/10/25/smart-forest-city-stefano-boeri-cancun-
mexico/
• First Smart Forest City in Mexico Designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti
• https://www.archdaily.com/927312/first-smart-forest-city-in-mexico-designed-by-
stefano-boeri-architetti

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