In issue 1104 of Domus magazine, September 2025, titled Plants, a contribution by Stefano Boeri is published under the title Urban Forestry, in which vegetation is described as an integral part of architectural design.
Inserted within a cycle of issues of the magazine by guest editor for 2025 Bjarke Ingels, dedicated to the various materials of architecture, Plants treats trees and plants on the same level as doors, windows, walls, and balconies—emphasizing the central role that vegetation must play in architectural and urban projects.
In this context, Stefano Boeri presents several projects by Stefano Boeri Architetti in which this concept is concretely expressed: from Milan’s Bosco Verticale, the first example of the typology, to the Trudo Vertical Forest in Eindhoven, entirely dedicated to social housing, as well as other international vertical forests completed in Huanggangg, Nanjing, Tirana, and Utrecht.
“Trees and plants become, from decorative objects that embellish architecture, thinking and autonomous subjects, endowed with an unmistakable individuality and with a particular life path. Our obsession with vegetation is not just a stubborn desire to create greener buildings, but rather the tenacious search for a different point of view. It is the pursuit of an architecture of biodiversity that includes the coexistence of multiple living species, not only humans. It is the firm conviction that biodiversity is not simply a matrix for measuring the density of species living in a place, nor merely an important resource for strengthening our immune defenses. The biodiversity we practice is a gymnastics and also a game, which consists in adopting the perspective of trees—from maples to beeches—but also of foxes, crows, and hedgehogs—reflecting on the urban world from their point of view,” writes Stefano Boeri.
Published in Domus no. 1102, 2025 – Courtesy of Archivio Domus – © Editoriale Domus S.p.A.