Stefano Boeri Architetti has created a new sustainable housing project for Antwerp, Belgium. Called Palazzo Verde, the design is formed with a semi-public garden at the ground floor and three large terraces of roof gardens. The project will include 86 trees, 2200 shrubs and perennials and 428,88 square meters of green surface. As the firm's first project in the country, the housing will be part of the Nieuw Zuid district to become a new landmark for the city.
Palazzo Verde was made to fight air pollution and absorb 5.5 tons of CO2 per year. “We thought that it was very important to have at the center of New Zuid district a new green spot that, whether in the courtyard or on roof gardens, hosts a relevant amount of trees and shrubs and gives back oxygen to the city. We are very satisfied with this first project of ours in Belgium, that shows how even a small residential building can offer to its inhabitants and to the citizens of the neighborhood an unexpected quality of green spaces and social activities”, Stefano Boeri comments.
The L-shaped building is located in a central plot of the masterplan designed by Bernardo Secchi and Paola Viganò, where it closes the side of the block that faces river Scheldt and embraces a semi-private green courtyard in its central part designed by Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets. From the courtyard, through a series of wide steps that also work as an amphitheater, you can access the Circularity Center where tenants and citizens can fix their bicycles and other domestic objects. Public and private space blend together with through the building's cascading structure.
