The new social housing project by Stefano Boeri Architetti is the first to integrate a vertical forest into an affordable residential skyscraper, improving the living conditions often incurred within such developments. 5,200 shrubs and 125 trees will be planted up the 75m tall structure in Eindhoven.
Trudo Vertical Forest will contain 125 social housing units over 19 floors to house lower income social groups, particularly young people. Each apartment will include a balcony filled with an array of trees, plants and shrubs for a forest soaring into the city's sky.
Integrating trees into the facade of the high-rise will help to counteract the atmospheric pollution by absorbing the carbon dioxide. Trudo Vertical Forest will also create an authentic eco-system, with over 70 different species, for plants and animals to thrive, facilitating the development of biodiversity within Eindhoven.
The high-rise building of Eindhoven confirms that it is possible to combine the great challenges of climate change with those of housing shortages. Urban forestry is not only necessary to improve the environment of the world's cities but also an opportunity to improve the living conditions of less fortunate city dwellers. - Stefano Boeri
Stefano Boeri Architetti's project will use prefabrication with a rationalisation of technical solutions for the facade to optimise the resources and enable the possibility of a vertical forest as social housing.
Vertical forests have risen in popular after Stefano Boeri Architetti's call for urban forestry in a global publication last month, encouraging new parks and gardens, vertical forests and green facades. Their video claimed that "increasing and moving trees into the world's cities can help clean the polluted air, drastically reduce CO2, reduce energy consumption and urban heat island effect, increase biodiversity of living species and make cities more pleasant, healthier and attractive."
Milan, Nanjing, Paris, Shanghai, Lausanne, Utrecht and Tirana have already proposed vertical forestry designs by Stefano Boeri Architetti, inspired to bring more trees into the urban environment.
Location: Strijp-S, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Client: Sint Trudo; General contractor: Stam + De Koning; Architects: Stefano Boeri Architetti; Partner: Stefano Boeri; Project Director: Francesca Cesa Bianchi; Project Leader: Paolo Russo; Team: Giulia Chiatante; Elisa Versari Inbo; Project Coordinator: Aron Bogers; Landscape Consultant: Studio Laura Gatti; Façade Consultant: SCE Project; Structure: Adviesbureau Tielemans; MEP Engineer: Ten Hooven Landscape Contractor: Dupre; Visualization: The Big Picture Visual
