stefano boeri plans smart forest city with more than 7 million plants in cancun, mexico

stefano boeri architetti has designed mexico‘s first smart forest city in cancun, which is planned to host 130,000 inhabitants and 7,500,000 plants on a land of 557 hectares. smart forest city cancun is conceived to be completely food and energy self-sufficient, and with a vanguard transportation system that comprises internal electric and semi-automatic mobility. additionally, thanks to a perfect balance between the amount of green areas and building footprint, the city will absorb 116.000 tons of carbon dioxide with 5.800 tons of CO2 stocked per year.image courtesy of the big picture (also header image)

developed for textile manufacturer and property developer grupo karim’s, smart forest city cancun is stefano boeri architetti‘s plan to give back to nature a large area where a shopping district would have been built. the project comprises 400 hectares of green spaces with 7,500,000 plants of 400 different species, carefully selected by botanist and landscape architect laura gatti. out of the 7,500,000 plants, 260,000 will be trees, amounting to 2.3 trees per inhabitant, while the rest will be composed of shrubs and bushes. public parks, private gardens, green roofs, and green façades will all contribute to achieving a perfect balance between nature and building footprint.image courtesy of the big picture

 focused on technological innovation and environmental quality, the smart forest city will include a center for advanced research that could host all worldwide university departments, international organizations and companies that deal with sustainability issues and the future of our planet. additionally, 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 an articulated transportation system proposed by MIC (mobility in chain), residents and visitors of smart forest city cancun will leave their vehicles at the edges of the city and rely uniquely on internal electric and semi-automatic mobility.

image courtesy of the big picture

with the contribution of climate engineering firm transsolar, the city is conceived to be completely food and energy self-sufficient, surrounded by a ring of solar panels and agricultural fields, irrigated by a water channel connected with a underwater maritime pipe. 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.

image courtesy of stefano boeri architetti

image courtesy of stefano boeri architetti image courtesy of stefano boeri architetti image courtesy of stefano boeri architetti

project info:

name: smart forest city – cancun

architect: stefano boeri architetti

partner: stefano boeri, francesca cesa bianchi

SBA – milan -design team

team leader: carlotta capobianco

team: yulia filatova, sara gangemi, hana narvaez, federico panella, he ruoyu, mattia tettoni, mario tan

SBA – research team

project director: maria chiara pastore

design team: giovanni nardi, luis pimentel, simone marchetti, livia shamir

SBA – shanghai team

project director: pietro chiodi

design team: mohamed yasser elsarif

sustainability and smart city: transsolar klimaengineering

project manager: tommaso bitossi

mobility: MIC – mobility in chain

partners: federico cassani

landscape: studio laura gatti

partner: laura gatti

client: grupo karim’s